
Book ,W4 5 
GwrightN 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



Sunday-School Essentials 



WHAT EVERY SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER AND SUPER- 
INTENDENT NEEDS THE MOST IN ORDER TO WIN SUCCESS 



BY 
AMOS R. WELLS 

AUTHOR OP "SUNDAY-SCHOOL PROBLEMS,* " SUNDAY-SCHOOL SUCCESS," ETC. 




W. A. WILDE COMPANY 

BOSTON AND CHICAGO 



^ 



5^° 



Copyright, 1911 

By W. A. WILDE COMPANY, 

All rights reserved. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 






Author's^ Note. — The author wishes to express his thanks to the following 
periodicals in which portions of this book first appeared: The Westminster 
Teacher, The New Century Teacher, The Pilgrim Teacher, The Baptist 
Teacher, The Sunday School Times, The Sunday School Journal, The 
Bible To-day and The Homiletic Review. 



V 



SCI.A309318 

i r 



CONTENTS 

'TEE PAGE 

I. THE ONE SUFFICIENT MOTIVE 7 

II. LOVE FOR THE PUPILS 11 

III. AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PUPILS ... 14 

IV. ARDENT INDUSTRY 18 

V. SHREWD INGENUITY 21 

VI. THE MAGIC OF TACT . . 24 

VII. ABSOLUTELY ENDLESS PATIENCE . . . .27 

VIII. THE BLESSED SENSE OF HUMOR .... 30 

IX. THE BULLDOG GRIP 34 

X. THE BOOK IN THE HEART 37 

XI. THE HEAVENLY PARTNER 41 

XII. THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 45 

XIII. PICTORIAL TEACHING 48 

XIV. HOW TO USE OBJECTS IN TEACHING ... 56 

XV. SUNDAY SCHOOL AND SECULAR SCHOOL . . 65 

XVI. HOW TO TALK TO CHILDREN 73 

XVII. BIBLE LESSONS B. C 82 

XVIII. THE TEACHER'S IMAGINATION 89 

XIX. TEST YOUR WORK 101 

XX. THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE 109 

XXI. LESSON NOTE-BOOKS 117 

XXII. PEDAGOGICAL RUTS 123 

XXIII. HOW SOCRATES TAUGHT 130 

XXIV. HOW TO TEACH TIMID SCHOLARS .... 138 

XXV. THREE TEACHING DEVICES. 

1. MY " TIME-STICK " 145 

2. MY PEG MAP 147 

3. MY CHAPTER BOARD 149 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XXVI. ORGANIZED CLASSES 153 

XXVII. IF I WERE BEGINNING TO TEACH . . . .166 

XXVIII. BEARING EACH PUPIL IN MIND . . . .170 

XXIX. BIBLE DRILLS 174 

XXX. A COURSE IN CHURCH HISTORY .... 182 

XXXI. A BUDGET OF HINTS. 

1. EVERY TEACHER HIS OWN NORMAL 

SCHOOL 186 

2. HARVESTED NOTE-BOOKS .... 188 

3. THEIR OWN APPLICATIONS .... 189 

4. A STUDY PROGRAMME 191 

5. SOMETHING TO DO 193 

6. THE METHOD OF BIBLE STUDY THAT 

HAS HELPED ME MOST . . . .194 

XXXII. GOOD CHEER FOR DISCOURAGED TEACHERS . 198 

XXXIII. A PLEASANT SCHOOLROOM 205 

XXXIV. LARGE AFFAIRS IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL . . 212 

XXXV. SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIALS . . .219 

XXXVI. EASY SUNDAY-SCHOOL CONCERTS .... 229 

XXXVII. PULLING TOGETHER 237 

XXXVIII. A FRESH START 244 

XXXIX. THE COOPERATIVE TEACHERS' MEETING . . 249 



Preface 

At different times and under different circumstances 
very different things are essential for Sunday-school suc- 
cess. I do not pretend that this book treats all of these. 
It does aim, however, to discuss the Sunday-school needs 
most commonly felt, and to provide practical suggestions 
regarding them. 

The thoughts and plans given in these pages all come 
out of actual Sunday-school work, and it is my hope and 
prayer that they may prove useful in other Sunday-school 
work, and helpful to other Sunday-school workers. 

Amos R. Weixs. 

Boston. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

i 

THE ONE SUFFICIENT MOTIVE 

The Sunday-school teacher is beset with a crafty tempta- 
tion — to work for himself. 

It is natural and right to want our pupils to love us; 
indeed, we cannot really teach them much until they love 
us. But the mere desire for popularity, that these bright 
young folks may hang upon us like bees upon a flower and 
thereby advertise our sweetness to the world, accomplishes 
very little in Sunday-school teaching. " Woe unto you," 
said Christ, " when all men shall speak well of you ! " 
He might even have said, " all children." There may 
easily come a time when your true glory will be that you 
are unpopular with your class, for a season. 

The right sort of teaching, based on the one sufficient 
motive, will make you beloved in the end ; but it is through 
so deep an absorption in the great, fundamental Sunday- 
school aim that actually you will not care whether your 
pupils love you or not, actually you will not think about 
that matter at all. Does this appear harsh? Wait; 
read on. 

Sometimes this temptation to work for ourselves in 
our teaching springs from the eagerness for applause. 



8 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

We want to hear people say : " What a fine teacher Miss 
S ymonds is ! how ingenious ! how tactful ! how skilled ! 
Her pupils are indeed fortunate." We want our class 
pointed out as the model class, and our methods held up 
as examples for the other teachers. 

And of course it is wise and right to seek the best 
methods, and aim at perfection in the beautiful and diffi- 
cult art of teaching. Without this desire and practice we 
shall hardly succeed; but we shall not succeed, either, if 
this is our main motive. The shrewdest forms of ques- 
tioning, the most alluring " manual methods," the bright- 
est anecdotes and illustrations, all are but tithing mint 
and anise and cummin if in them we are neglecting a 
weightier matter, the one weighty matter. 

I spend no small part of my time in writing about good 
methods in teaching, but it is time thrown away unless 
teachers will put back of the best methods the best motive. 
That motive will vivify the methods; without it they are 
only empty shells. If a teacher lacks that motive I should 
say to him, " It makes no difference how you teach ; pay 
no attention to that just now; first things first: consider 
why you are teaching." 

If one of the temptations of a teacher is to work for 
himself, another temptation is to work for his pupils. 

" What ! " you exclaim ; " are we not to make our pu- 
pils' welfare our main thought ? " ~No ; strange as it 
seems to say it, we are not. 

The teacher whose main thought is his own popularity 
or reputation is dependent for his success on his pupils' 
responsiveness ; but if his main thought is his pupils' wel- 
fare ; he is again dependent for his success upon hip 



THE ONE SUFFICIENT MOTIVE 9 

pupils' responsiveness. That is a matter largely beyond 
his control, and true success is always within a worker's 
control. Our pupils may prove careless, indifferent, un- 
grateful; bad home influences, evil companions, worldly 
temptations, the work of Satan and his cohorts, may be 
too much for us. Is our work therefore a failure ? Yes, 
if we predicate success upon our pupils' salvation. No, 
if our motive is deeper, and seeks a deeper and surer re- 
ward. 

Ah, brothers and sisters in this holy calling, one pur- 
pose alone can furnish a firm fulcrum for our lever, and 
that is the desire to please our Saviour! 

We have no right, after our teaching, to ask ourselves 
any question but this, " Have I pleased Christ ? " 

This is within our control, this pleasing of Christ. It 
means that our hearts be pure, and that we do our best. 
Christ is not pleased with slovenly methods, but He is 
pleased with our best. 

We are like a man sent out to sow a field; if the seed 
falls on stony ground or shallow ground, and if the birds 
come and eat it up, yet our work is a success because we 
have pleased the Master of the field. We may be sure 
that He will cause some of the seed to bring forth sixty 
or a hundredfold ; but if He does not, still we may be sure 
of our success. The success of the seed is not the success 
of the sower. 

When our teaching is thus based upon the one sufficient 
motive it is thereby freed from all anxiety. We shall be 
calm and peaceful. Every Sabbath will bring its reward 
in the Master's " Well done." 

We shall not love the children less, but more; because 



10 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

they are Christ's dear children. We shall not do our 
work less faithfully, but more faithfully; because it is 
Christ's work. We shall toil no less eagerly, but His 
broad shoulders will be under the burden; the responsi- 
bility will be His. Our teaching will be lifted above pas- 
sions and ambitions and frets and disappointments and 
fears. We shall come out into a large place, the realm 
of quietness and certainty. 

And this life with Christ, this one motive of Christ- 
pleasing, will infallibly in the end make us beloved and 
honored, and draw our pupils to the love of Christ. 



II 

LOVE FOR THE PUPILS 

Among the Sunday-school teacher's fundamental needs 
is certainly love for his pupils. Fear of his pupils surely 
will not carry him far, nor will desire for their good 
opinion ; nothing will buoy him over the many difficulties 
of a teacher but a deep love for those he is teaching. 

Love for them will not always be easy. Children often 
show their worst side to those that are trying to help them. 
Your pupils will be careless at times, and indifferent; 
they will be stupid occasionally; often they may be talk- 
ative and mischievous and sometimes even impudent. 
Love for them will positively be needed to overcome the 
repugnance that these actions will arouse, and keep the 
teacher a teacher. 

The work of the Sunday-school teacher is hard: it 
means time taken from other things for study of the Bible 
and for visiting with your pupils, and it requires endless 
patience and persistence. Love alone can keep us at our 
difficult task — love for Christ, but a Christ-love that 
reaches out in sincere love for Christ's children. 

This must not be a merely sentimental love, based on 
beautiful poems and exquisite pictures of childhood, feed- 
ing on fair faces and curls and dimples and clear young 
voices. The physical side of a child possesses great 
charm, and it is an inspiration to think of the boundless 

11 



12 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS' 

possibilities before a boy or a girl; but, like a summer 
landscape before a thunder-storm, all these allurements 
flee before a gust of petulance or selfishness or ugliness, 
and nothing remains but a disgusting sense of original 
sin. 

What kind of love for our pupils must we seek, and how 
are we to get it? 

Here, as everywhere, Christ must be our model. How 
can He, how does He, love us ? The best of us have so 
much evil in us, the loveliest of us have so much ugliness ! 
And Christ is so unselfish and so beautiful ! If we can 
get at the secret of His love for us, we may apply it to 
our pupils. 

~Now Christ loves us partly because we are His work- 
manship. He created us in the beginning, and He con- 
tinually preserves us. Somewhat as a mother loves even 
her misshapen child, or as an author loves his poem though 
the lines limp, or as a carpenter loves his table though 
one of the boards is cracked, so Christ honors in us the 
work of His own hands though we have spoiled it. Bur- 
bank's Shasta daisy must be sweeter to him than any com- 
mon flower, because he has put so much of himself into 
it; and so the more creative work we do for our pupils, 
the more we shall love them. As we improve their char- 
acters, though only slightly, and as we teach them, though 
ever so little, we shall begin to love them. 

Again, Christ loves us because He gave Himself for us, 
and from the foundation of the world. Through all the 
long ages, even in times of the vilest human perversity, 
there never was a day when Christ was not crucified for 
us. This He did because He understood the terrible pos- 



LOVE FOR THE PUPILS 13 

sibilities and certainties of sin; and something of this we 
can do for our pupils. We can see what their folly will 
bring to them, how this bad temper or this bad habit will 
result in the loss of friends and health and peace and 
prosperity and heaven itself; and the pity that we shall 
come to feel will be very close to love and will lead us to it. 

Yes, and Christ loves us not only because He realizes 
our evil possibilities, but because He sees also our possi- 
bilities for good. He knows that He formed us in His 
image, and He longs to have us once more like Himself. 
He is lonely without us. And so the more we have Christ 
formed in us the more we shall see what graces and what 
joys are possible for all others. We shall sympathize the 
more with Chrises ideal for His children, and love in 
them the undeveloped and obscured image of His perfec- 
tion. 

And finally, Christ loves us because He has entered 
into our experiences, having been tempted in all points 
even as we are so sadly and constantly tempted. Surely 
this bond of love should unite us also with Christ's chil- 
dren. Whatever folly in them may tend to alienate our 
affection, we have only to look into our past lives and we 
shall see the same folly; we have only to look into our 
hearts and we shall see the possibility of it even now. 
Think what you yourself did once or said once to your 
own teacher or your father or mother. Ah, a good mem- 
ory is necessary if one would be a good teacher ! 



Ill 

AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PUPILS 

You will make no progress in love for your pupils if 
you do not understand them. It is often said, " Mrs. So- 
and-so is a success at raising flowers because she loves them 
so much." But watch Mrs. So-and-so and you will see 
that she knows just what kind of soil each plant prefers, 
just how much sunshine or shade or water or heat to give 
each plant, just how to prune the plants and keep off the 
insects. She loves flowers, to be sure; but because she 
loves them she has taken pains to understand them. Many 
love flowers as much as she does, but are too lazy or 
stupid to raise them. And many love children, but will 
not take pains to understand them, and therefore make 
failures of their Sunday-school teaching. 

Would that we might understand children as easily as 
flowers ! But those flowerlike beings are endlessly com- 
plex. This minute the child will be a little angel, and 
the next a little imp. Now he is a marvel of keen wis- 
dom, and soon he is unimaginably dense. To-day he is 
obstinate and rude; to-morrow he will be gentle and 
tractable. Especially at certain ages children are irrita- 
ble and irresponsible, and the hapless teacher never knows 
whether his hour is to be a delight or a torment. 

We have taken one important step toward understand- 
ing our pupils if we understand how complex and varying 

14 



AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PUPILS 15 

is this nature of theirs. Do not expect in your children 
uniformity or consistency of conduct. Two natures 
within them are very plainly struggling for control. Later 
in life, this struggle will have been decided ; or, if it still 
continues, it will be discreetly and respectably concealed. 
In childhood and youth, however, the contending forces 
are swaying backward and forward all over the field, and 
the issue of battle is distressingly uncertain. This condi- 
tion, if the teacher really loves humanity, adds wondrous 
zest and incentive to his work. He is engaged in a grand 
warfare, and the prizes are infinitely precious. 

Another aid in understanding children is to realize 
how short their life has been. Short as it is, they have 
learned wonderful things. The average child of the In- 
termediate Department has made acquisitions in language, 
motion, mental acumen and practical science, undoubtedly 
equal to all he is likely to acquire in all his later life. 
But this lore has been, in a way, forced upon him. Here 
every room has been a schoolroom, and every person and 
animal and thing has been an instructor. But figure up 
how many (rather, how few) hours of real instruction in 
the Bible your children have probably enjoyed thus far, 
and you will see that it is unreasonable to expect them to 
have learned much about the Scriptures or about religion. 
Most Sunday-school teachers quite fail to comprehend the 
density of their pupils' entirely excusable ignorance, and 
so shoot over their heads with their teaching, repeat too 
little and drill too seldom. Written work is of the great- 
est importance, and constant reviews, that the teacher 
may understand just where his pupils are mentally, and 
not try to teach them where they are not. 



16 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

Again, you cannot understand a child without under- 
standing his surroundings. Before they moved the Bos- 
ton Art Museum to its present superb building, the site of 
it was occupied for many months solely by a tiny wooden 
structure whose purpose was a puzzle to most observers. 
In it an exceedingly careful series of investigations was 
made as to the light that fell from the sky at different 
times of day and in different seasons and upon different 
portions of the ground, for the little building was moved 
from place to place. Thus the architect was enabled to 
plan every room of the museum with full knowledge of 
how to place the windows for the best illumination of the 
objects to be exhibited there. 

Such pains are taken with mummies and statues, and 
yet we Sunday-school teachers often attempt to plan and 
build the structure of an immortal character without once 
visiting the scene in which that character must have its 
chief development! We cannot understand our pupils 
without knowing what helps and hindrances they have at 
home. The growth of a plant depends largely upon its 
environment, nor is it otherwise with these human flowers. 

You must go beneath the surface, if you would under- 
stand a child. Some that seem indifferent are feeling 
the most deeply. Some that appear careless are really ex- 
periencing the most concern. Some that are most mis- 
chievous and troublesome are actually yearning for the 
best life. Occasionally a child carries his heart on his 
sleeve, and his face is a clear window, disclosing what is 
going on within; but far more often you will find chil- 
dren shy of disclosing their noblest desires and finest im- 
pulses. The wise teacher will watch eagerly for revela- 



AN UNDERSTANDING OE THE PUPILS If 

tions of the true inner life of his pupils, and until he 
has seen it he will never be quite sure of the best-appearing 
of them, nor begin to be discouraged concerning the worst- 
appearing. 

But the most important thing needing to be said on 
this subject is that, just as the pure in heart are they 
that see God, so it is they that alone can see and under- 
stand God's dear children. Quite in proportion as you 
are sincere will others be sincere with you. Your Christ- 
likeness will disclose whatever of Christlikeness is in the 
boys and girls, just as the musical vibrations of a finely 
attuned instrument draw out whatever possibility of musi- 
cal vibrations exists in all the other objects in the room. 
And thus it is necessary above all for the Sunday-school 
teacher to understand himself, as a prerequisite to the un- 
derstanding of his pupils. 



IV 

ARDENT INDUSTRY 

" Ardent " means " burning." " Zealous " means 
" boiling." It was said of Christ, " The zeal of thine 
house hath eaten me up." It was His meat and drink to 
work for God. We, His followers, also are told that it is 
good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. We 
are commanded, by one who practised what he preached, 
to be fervent in spirit ; and the literal Greek is " boiling 
in spirit." This is the true Sunday-school worker's type 
of industry. There must be nothing languid or lacka- 
daisical about it. 

Without this industry the love of Christ and of our 
pupils and the understanding of our pupils are all use- 
less. Many teachers are really too lazy to teach, though 
they would be amazed and very indignant if they were 
told that. They read their Bibles and study the lessons 
and go to see their pupils in their homes and perhaps 
spend many hours a week on their Sunday-school work; 
but the spending of time is not industry. Perhaps they 
are very anxious for the success of their teaching, and 
long with great eagerness for their pupils' salvation; but 
anxiety and eagerness are not industry. Industry is 
work; ardent industry is work with all one's soul in it. 
The truly industrious teachers may spend in their work 
only half the time of other teachers, and yet get far more 

18 



ARDENT INDUSTRY 19 

out of the time they employ. They will be least anxious 
about their work, because there will be the least cause for 
anxiety. 

Ardent industry will not postpone the lesson prepara- 
tion. As soon as one lesson has been taught, preparation 
for the next will be begun. This beginning will be made 
without fail on Sunday afternoon or evening. Thus the 
teacher will be unhurried in his work, and unhurried 
work is always the best work, and the easiest. He will 
gain time on his side ; he will have the immense advantage 
of unconscious cerebration, the under-current thinking 
that is so valuable; he will get many unexpected accre- 
tions of illustrations and facts from his reading and ob- 
servation during the week. One hour on Sunday and 
ten minutes on each of the other days of the week make 
two hours in all. They are worth for lesson preparation 
far more than four hours spent on Saturday afternoon 
and Sunday morning before school time. 

Ardent industry puts the whole mind on the task. The 
wise teacher will have a place for his Sunday-school study- 
ing. He will have a Sunday-school corner of his home, 
where, on a shelf or a desk, he will arrange all his ma- 
terial, his books, maps, tablets, records, all the tools of his 
trade. He will at once get into the Sunday-school atmos- 
phere when he goes to that corner. If possible, he will 
manage to be alone during his studying; at any rate, it 
will be understood that he is not to be interrupted by 
conversation. Absorption means growth, in the mind as 
in a plant. It is no more necessary to give time to the 
task than to give yourself wholly to the time. 

Ardent industry, as already hinted, implies a mind that 



20 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

is continually occupied with the task in a subconscious 
way. What is true physically is true mentally, that there 
should be a Sunday-school corner in the head, to which 
the teacher will turn instinctively, at night on the bed, or 
during times of waiting in the day, or on his walks to and 
fro. It is this brooding that makes a lesson really yours. 

Ardent industry implies thoroughness of study. The 
teacher will read much ; first, his Bible, in large portions, 
and all the parallel accounts; then, the commentaries, till 
it all is clear; then, as widely as the time permits, for 
illustrations and for methods of presentation. His read- 
ing will include the use of the Bible dictionary and the 
atlas and the Bible history. Different lessons will re- 
quire different amounts of it, but he will not stop till the 
lesson is all clear and familiar. 

Finally, this ardent industry will not be confined to 
the preparation of the lesson, but it will go on to gather up 
the results of the teaching, and reinforce them by visiting 
the pupils at their homes, having them come to your home, 
studying with them, taking them on pleasant excursions, 
writing letters to them, trying in every way to become 
a practical influence in their lives. Industry often fails 
because it is solitary. Teaching is a social process from 
beginning to end. We are to be workers together — not 
only with God, but with His dear children. 



V 

SHREWD INGENUITY 

Industry and ingenuity are alike in their first syllables, 
and many confound the two; but an ounce of ingenuity 
outweighs a ton of plodding. Children are bright, and 
value brightness. They are ever fresh and enterprising, 
and they like new ways. Euts and routine may suit the 
conservative elders, but a monotonous groove is abhorrent 
to a child. A new way, though no better than an old way, 
is better with children just because it is new. 

And so the wise teacher will consider every element, 
every step, in the teaching process, and try endlessly to 
better it. For example, to take the very first element, 
how does he begin the lessons ? The introduction is half 
of the pedagogical battle. The first minute is one-half of 
the whole forty minutes. It should grip attention, sound 
the keynote, invite, attract. And yet how few teachers 
plan for it! The introduction to each lesson should 
usually be different from that of the last lesson. E~ow it 
will be a pointed anecdote, now a strong question, now a 
startling statement. Again, it will be a picture held up 
before the class, or a sketch map drawn on a slate, or a 
diagram which the pupils will be set to copying. It 
may be a vivid word picture. It may be a single sen- 
tence which the teacher will read impressively three times. 

It may be the key verse of the lesson which the class will 

21 



22 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

read in concert. There is room right at the outset for 
shrewd ingenuity, and it will pay. 

The teaching process proceeds by the use of questions. 
Here planned variety and brightness are most essential. 
Sometimes we may use the questions in the quarterly. 
Sometimes we may dictate a set of questions to the class 
a week in advance. Sometimes we may hold in our hand 
a lot of questions written on separate strips of cardboard, 
which the pupils will draw in turn, read aloud, and an- 
swer or let their neighbors answer, each pupil retaining 
the slip he answers and striving to get the most slips. 
For variety, each pupil, after reading aloud the question 
he draws, instead of answering it himself may call on 
some other pupil to answer it. Again, all the question 
slips may be laid on the table, face down, and the pupils 
will pick them up in turn and answer them if they can. 
Again, the class will be divided, a week in advance, into 
two sides, which will meet and prepare sets of questions 
to fire at each other on Sunday, and see which side can 
answer the largest number of its opponents' questions cor- 
rectly. I know of no phase of the teaching process that 
better repays ingenuity than this of questioning. 

The use of maps is essential for good teaching, and 
here also we need the most thoughtful brightness. It is 
not enough simply to point to a map on the wall. Often 
get the pupils to make their own maps, copying a simple 
outline map which you will set before them. Sometimes 
you will draw the map in their presence, requiring them 
to name each feature as you add it to the map. Some- 
times you will mount the outline map on a board and have 
the pupils stick pins in different places (unnamed, of 



SHREWD INGENUITY 23 

course), as you call for them. They will carry a string 
along from pin to pin to represent a journey of some 
character whom they are studying. Sometimes you will 
use a printed map, having the pupils attach adhesive stars 
to the places visited by the lesson hero, or follow his 
course by a series of paper pennants stuck into the map. 

Ingenuity is needed, too, in the use of the Bible in 
the class: sometimes the Scripture passage read straight 
through; sometimes a verse read in silence and then a 
questioning upon it and then another verse in silence; 
sometimes the verses pasted on a series of cards which 
are distributed, and then a question to be answered by 
the pupil that holds the appropriate verse, and then an- 
other question. 

Ingenuity may be used in the important matter of get- 
ting home study: now by special assignments of work to 
each pupil; now by calling on all to write condensations 
of the lesson story in twenty-five words; now by asking 
for written paraphrases; again by setting the pupils to 
writing two-minute essays; by giving out two or three re- 
search topics for the pupils to look up ; by postal-card re- 
quests for certain sorts of study sent to their homes; by 
a study social held at the home of the teacher. 

It is not always your ingenuity that is needed; it is 
quite as valuable to appreciate and use the ingenuity of 
another. Be quick to take hints. Observe, and listen, 
and read. But originate all you can, and never say, " I 
am not original," until you have faithfully and per- 
sistently tried to be. Most originality is simply clear in- 
sight into a need, and then hard, persevering thought and 
labor. Most lack of ingeniousness is lack of energy. 



THE MAGIC OF TACT 

" Tact " and " contact " are sister words. Tact is 
really touching lives. Education and isolation are im- 
possible together. The familiar saying that Mark Hop- 
kins at one end of a log and a pupil at the other end 
would constitute a university is wrong in an important 
particular: both should be at the middle of the log! 
There is no tact without contact, and a teacher must get 
close to his pupils if he would get an influence over them. 

A distant manner is fatal to success in teaching, be- 
cause it renders impossible this contact which is the basis 
of tact. I have a friend whose oft-repeated injunction is, 
" Get chummy with folks." I should like to write those 
words on the heart of every Sunday-school teacher in the 
world. As the teacher sits down with his class he should 
have the jolly, pleased air which says that he is at last in 
the one place where he has most wanted to be for a week. 
Is he to pretend what he does not feel ? Yes, because he 
will soon come to feel it ! There must be no " letting 
one's self down," in this chumminess. Tact implies that 
you actually live on the children's level of interests and 
feelings. Remember what Christ said are the conditions 
of entrance into His kingdom, and you will perceive that 
their level may even be above your own. 

A dictatorial air, the air of the pedagogue and school- 

24 



THE MAGIC OF TACT 25 

ma'am, destroys the possibility of tact. It puts you at 
once in a position of authority, over the children and not 
on their level. Such a manner constitutes you not their 
friend but their boss, and children — as well as grown- 
ups — hate to be bossed. The wise teacher will know 
how to substitute for the dictatorial air an air of invita- 
tion, precisely as if he were calling the class to join him 
in a happy game or delightful excursion. 

That last suggestion goes to the heart of the matter. 
You will succeed just in proportion as your pupils come 
to want to go to Sunday school, want to read and study 
the Bible. Tact — contact — is like electricity. It is an 
enjoyment, flowing from you to them and welding the 
class and the teacher together in a common ardor. 

From all this it follows that a direct command is the 
last resource a teacher should employ. At once it places 
a barrier between him and his pupils. If he has not 
aroused their desire, let him appeal next to their sense of 
reasonableness. " If you were teacher in my place, and 
if you had spent three hours in preparing to teach, and 
then the pupils paid no attention to you, how would you 
feel \ and what would you do ? " Such an appeal does 
not break contact, but rather strengthens it. 

And, of course, it follows from these considerations 
that tact is impossible when one is angry. It is a good 
teaching rule never to rebuke a pupil until one can do it 
in complete forgetfulness of self and in the spirit of love. 
Almost any offense that is not disturbing the rest of the 
school can wait for your right mood. If you do not wait, 
you will have two errors to correct, yours, and theirs 
still. 



26 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

My subject is " The Magic of Tact " ; and tact is in- 
deed magical. If you have it, you can do what you will. 
Your pupils will study for you, listen to you, try to please 
you. All things are possible to love, and tact is love in 
action. 

Therefore you can get tact only by getting outside 
yourself, into the realm of love. Put yourself in their 
place. Try to imagine what your pupils would admire 
and love in a teacher — not nagging and frowns on the 
one side, not weakness and laxness on the other side, but 
firmness, sweetness, reasonableness, brightness and sym- 
pathy. And it is certain that as by this loving imagina- 
tion you get into their lives and put yourself in their 
place you will get into contact with them, and will exer- 
cise the magic of tact. 



VII 

ABSOLUTELY ENDLESS PATIENCE 

The word " patience " comes from the Latin word 
meaning to suffer. Patience is long-suffering. Surely it 
is a good word to apply to some of our Sunday-school 
classes ! " Passive " comes from the same Latin root, 
but patience is not necessarily a passive virtue. Patience 
may co-exist with the most energetic effort to better con- 
ditions; indeed, such work adds much to patience. We 
can endure far better the shortcomings of our pupils if 
there is hope of improvement through wise plans and 
steady action. Weak submission to poor work and faulty 
character is very far from patience, yet it is as near as 
many teachers come to it. 

There is much in Sunday-school teaching that calls for 
patience, especially in intermediate classes. There is 
much carelessness, indifference, ingratitude, even impu- 
dence. The pupils forget their lesson quarterlies, they 
will not study at home, they whisper and fidget and cut 
up all kinds of pranks. They are often inattentive and 
fretful and impolite. When rebuked, they sulk or fly into 
a passion. Indeed, I know of no position so trying as 
that of a Sunday-school teacher with unruly pupils. In 
the home we have each one to ourselves, but in the class 
the wrongdoing is massed and impetuous. In the public 
school we have authority; discipline is expected by both 

27 



28 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

pupil and parent. In the Sunday school we hate to spoil 
the effect of our teaching by scolding, or lose control of 
the pupils by sending them home, or waste the few pre- 
cious minutes in discipline. 

Our patience will be helped by discovering and re- 
membering all palliatory circumstances. This pupil was 
up late at a party the night before. This other pupil is 
half sick. The room is too cold or too hot. A class near 
by is making too much noise. The lesson is too mature 
for them. Their home influences are bad or negative. 
They are at the nervous age. The room needs ventila- 
tion. The disturbance spreads from only one pupil in the 
class. Some of these causes of the trouble are apparent, 
and should be remembered. Remember, too, that there 
may be many causes that are not apparent, such as poor 
food, indigestion, a toothache or a headache. When these 
foes assail you at home, are you always angelic? Im- 
agine such ailments as at the bottom of much of the dis- 
order in your class. Often you will be right in your 
conjecture, and even when you are wrong the conjecture 
will be an aid to your patience. 

" Love suffereth long, and is kind." What better motto 
for a teacher than this ? We are patient with those we 
love, but we cannot well be patient with those we just 
endure. Every pupil has his lovable side, however mis- 
chievous or ugly he may be. Find it. Such a child may 
be discovered to have been simply starving for love, and 
nothing else the matter. 

" Absolutely endless patience " is my theme ; and pa- 
tience is valueless unless it is endless. One lapse of pa- 
tience may undo months of long-suffering. The pupils 



ABSOLUTELY ENDLESS PATIENCE 29 

will take your moment's harshness as an index of your 
true self, and will fear and distrust you henceforth. A 
manufacturer works up a reputation for his goods by 
sending them forth unvarying in quality, and only by un- 
varying, endless patience can you gain with your pupils 
a reputation for patience and love. 

Therefore if you feel impatient that is just the time 
when you should by no means punish or scold or even re- 
buke. Better let the recitation be spoiled by the pupil 
than by you and the pupil. If you are patient under 
manifest provocation, other pupils will take your part 
against the disturber; but if you are cross, you will 
alienate sympathy from yourself and turn it to the wrong- 
doer. 

Christ is our perfect model of patience. He could 
say, " Woe unto you," but more in sorrow than in anger. 
He could use the whip, but plainly for His Father and His 
Father's house. For Himself, when He was reviled, 
there was no answer. When He was crucified, His only 
word was, " Father, forgive them." For love, He en- 
dured the cross. " Looking unto Jesus " we may run 
with patience the race that is set before us. If we have 
His spirit of love, we shall gladly endure all the crosses 
of our difficult calling, ready to bear all things if we may 
in the end win a single soul. 



VIII 

THE BLESSED SENSE OF HUMOR 

What is a sense of humor ? It is the ability to see 
the funny side of a situation, if it has any. It is the 
ability at any rate to regard it light-heartedly, even if it 
has no funny side. It is a real part of that joy of the 
Lord which is our strength, a joy into which we are to 
enter without waiting for the judgment day. It is not 
a pretense that what is not there is there, that things 
are different from what they are. It is clear-eyed, but it is 
happy-hearted. It is not invincible optimism, but it is in- 
vincible cheer. 

This sense of humor is vastly helpful in all work, but 
especially in teaching. In the first place, child life is a 
large fount of humor, albeit that humor is generally un- 
conscious. Children keep the funny columns of our 
papers filled with the only original jokes since the days 
of the Chaldseans ! They are our natural humorists, and 
the rest are painfully artificial. It will greatly lighten 
our teaching labors if we can appreciate and gloat over 
the funny answers and comical remarks that are con- 
stantly enlivening our classes. 

And besides, this sense of humor is especially helpful 
in teaching because the teacher's work, especially the Sun- 
day-school teacher's work, is so full of discouragements; 

we try to do so much with so little — so little time and 

30 



THE BLESSED SENSE OF HUMOR 31 

study and often with so little appreciation — that we 
need all the alleviation we can muster. 

These little men and women themselves are an unfail- 
ing spring of laughter to any healthy soul. Their airs, 
so comically aping their elders; their self-importance, so 
like what the angels must see in us ; their tragedies, which 
are comedies to us, just as our present tragedies will 
seem comic to us some day — who can look on a child 
without tender amusement, as if seeing himself in a 
foreshortening mirror ? Looking upon them thus, you 
will laugh at their tantrums and their follies, but it will 
be more a ridiculing of your own. 

Then a sense of humor bridges over the dark places 
in our work with remembered shafts of light. How 
swiftly the children flash from angel to imp and back 
again ! Remember the rapid transformations of " Helen's 
Babies " — a book, by the way, that every teacher would 
profit by reading. In that very suddenness of change 
is something comic, like the turning of White Dinah into 
Black Dinah. If you can remember the angel it will 
greatly help you with the imp. 

The play faculty is a part of the sense of humor. ~No 
teacher can get along well with children unless he car- 
ries the play spirit into his task. His work must be a 
delight to him, and then there is some chance that it will 
become a delight to them. The game element will be 
introduced into all good teaching. It may be a set of 
questions written on slips of paper and held mysteriously 
in the teacher's hand for the pupils to draw therefrom. 
It may be similar question slips face downward on the 
table, for the pupils to select them one by one, turn them 



32 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

up and answer them. It may be a question tournament, 
conducted like a spelling-match. Whatever device you 
adopt, continually changing the method, a contest, a 
struggle, a possible victory must enter into all effort and 
achievement. The ideal teaching evokes for the class 
the same zest as for the playground. Why not? Is it 
not thus with genuine scholars among the elders ? and are 
we not seeking to make such scholars out of the children ? 

If you lack the play sense, you can get it — by play- 
ing; there is no other way. An over-working man makes 
a poor teacher, and so does an under-playing man. If 
you lack this play sense, the realization of it is quite as 
necessary for your secular work as for your Sunday- 
school teaching. To remedy the lack will take time, but 
it will pay richly. 

The sense of humor is close also to the faculty of 
imagination. It enables the teacher to put himself in 
the child's place. It enables one also to put one's self 
into the future, and from that happy vantage ground to 
look back and find one's worries all forgotten, and see the 
children grown up, wise, good, useful, and grateful. It 
contrasts the present with this future, and laughs merrily 
and hopefully. 

The sense of humor is close also to the faculty of 
memory. The wise teacher will cherish in memory all 
the bright and cheery passages in his teaching, all the 
funny happenings and sayings, all the hints of apprecia- 
tion from parents and pupils. It is a good plan to write 
them down in a little Encouragement Book by themselves, 
and to review them often. 

Did Christ ever laugh? Of course He did. There is 



THE BLESSED SENSE OF HUMOR 33 

no record of it, because no record is needed. His tears 
are recorded, because they were unusual — ■ though what 
reasons for weeping He had! But He loved children 
and drew them to Himself, and so He must have had a 
sense of humor. And by it, as I like to think, even the 
great Teacher was supported and consoled. 



IX 

THE BULLDOG GRIP 

Oliver Wendell Holmes gives us our keynote in his 
stirring words, that have been a help to me many times 
in my teaching: 

Be firm; one constant element of luck 

Is genuine, solid, old Teutonic pluck. 

Stick to your aim: the mongrel's hold will slip, 

But only crowbars loose the bulldog's grip; 

Small though he looks, the jaw that never yields 

Drags down the bellowing monarch of the fields! 

A similar inspiration from literature has been that 
bulldog scene from which " The Hoosier Schoolmaster " 
gained his stimulus to a dogged determination. Very 
often, at the thought of these passages from Holmes and 
Eggleston, I have shut my teeth hard, taken a new grip 
of my teaching task, and made up my mind never to let 
go till victory was mine. 

Often, when you cannot reason yourself into success, 
or even pray yourself into success, when you have done 
the best you knew and have failed, when love for your 
pupils has passed into dread and dislike, when tact and 
patience have flown to the winds, all that is left is to hold 
on, and holding on may bring success. 

Young people, with their own vim and courage, recog- 

34 



THE BULLDOG GRIP 35 

nize grit in others, and value it. If you but bear with for- 
titude their manifest wrongdoing, many of them will come 
over to your side against the wrongdoers, and thus by 
dividing them you will conquer them. 

Dogged determination, absolute refusal to admit de- 
feat, positive decision to hold on forever, steadies the 
nerves and gives at once the air of victory. This is not 
to hocus yourself with the pretense that you have suc- 
ceeded, but to comfort yourself (using " comfort " in the 
old sense of to strengthen) with the confidence that you 
will succeed. Boys and girls are quick to recognize the 
calm, take-it-or-leave-it-but-you'11-be-sorry-if-you-leave-it 
tone of one who is sure of his ground. 

There is an element of indignation in the bulldog grip. 
It does not hurt a teacher to entertain a little righteous 
wrath over a pupil's sloth or obstinacy or impudence or 
sulkiness. Only there is a vast difference between being 
righteously indignant and being mad. Righteous indig- 
nation is akin to Christ's whip of cords. It is the father's 
sternness on occasion because there is no other way for 
the father's love to train an object for itself. It is safe 
— note this well — if it is impersonal. 

There is an element of prayer in the bulldog grip. It 
lays hold of God's strength as Jacob laid hold of the 
wrestling angel. It asserts grimly and triumphantly, " I 
can do all things in him that strengtheneth me." It says 
with Emerson: 

So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 

So near is God to man, 
When Duty whispers low, " Thou must," 

The youth replies, " I can." 



36 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

First be certain that your will is in God's hands, that 
you are engaged in God's work, that your preparation is 
controlled by Him, and then you may know that you have 
His almightiness back of you; you may seize it with 
the electric grip that welds. 

Did you ever read Shepard's energizing book, " Before 
an Audience " ? If you have read it, you will remember 
how he insists upon a speaker's being at what he calls 
" electric tension." The will of the teacher, as well as 
that of the speaker, must be like an overflowing reservoir, 
fairly sweeping away all opposition of his listeners. Ex- 
pect obedience, and you will get it. How readily we 
follow those that are in the habit of leading! What at- 
tention we give to those that customarily command atten- 
tion ! Teachers, like all others, are usually taken at their 
evident, quiet self-estimation. If, however, on the con- 
trary, you are plainly not confident, but distressed, plead- 
ing, hesitant, you will get from your little audience just 
what you expect. 

Bodily health is important for this bulldog grip. 
Flabby muscles furnish a poor basis for mental tension, 
and racked nerves for spiritual firmness. If possible, 
take a brisk walk before you go to your class. Pre- 
sent yourself before them glowing with physical energy, 
and you will quite surely find that mental energy will ac- 
company it. And if with this outdoor walk you also 
have such a walk with God as Enoch had, if you gain the 
calm assurance of contact with eternal forces, if you feel 
yourself to be but their channel as they flow through 
you to your class, you will ally yourself with the majestic 
confidence of Jehovah, and, with Him, you must prevail. 



X 

THE BOOK IN THE HEART 

It is impossible to exaggerate the value of a love for 
the Bible if one is to be a successful Sunday-school 
teacher. No head knowledge will take its place, no en- 
thusiasm for literature, history, or antiquarian lore. 
Most of this is beyond your pupils, anyway, but love of 
the Bible is not. If with all your teaching you teach that, 
you have planted a self-growing seed. If you merely 
give your pupils information, you have contributed to the 
soil of their minds fertilizers, perhaps, but certainly not 
vital germs. 

" The Book in the Heart " means quite literally, in 
the first place, much of the Bible committed to memory. 
A Sunday-school teacher should be able to quote freely 
the great Bible passages and single verses, giving the chap- 
ter and verse. One never can tell when this will be 
needed. Our work is like that of the physician, who 
surely cannot take time by the bedside of his patient to 
study his medical library. 

And this memorizing should be more than personal: 
we must stimulate our pupils to commit the Bible to 
memory. Aim to illustrate every lesson by the whole 
Bible. If you have your friends in your heart, you can 
talk by the hour about their characteristics, relating their 
deeds and quoting their sayings. So also will it be if you 

37 



38 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

carry in your heart Abraham and Moses, David and John, 
Panl and Christ. 

The heart is the center of life. Urging that we put 
the book in our hearts is the same as insisting that it must 
be in our lives. It cannot govern your imagination and 
affection "without governing your action. The Sunday- 
school teacher that does not live a Bible life cannot be 
a Bible teacher. Many teach the history of the Jews, 
but not the history of God's people; that wonderful 
phrase, " God's people," has so little meaning for them. 
Many inspire in their pupils an appreciation of the fine 
literary excellence of the Psalms, yet cannot implant in 
their lives a single line like " O how love I thy law ! " 
But if the Word is a lamp to your feet you can set it on a 
lamp-stand, that it may give light to all the members of 
your class. 

" Heart " suggests " hearty." " Cordial " is Latin for 
the same. The Bible in the heart insures warm and en- 
thusiastic teaching of the Bible. A Bible-lover has the 
zest that every lover has. " All the world loves a lover " 
' — any kind of lover, and not the least a lover of the 
Book. If a teacher shows plainly that he enjoys the 
study of the Bible, it will not be long before his pupils 
will want to enter into his joy. 

What you know " by heart " you are at home in teach- 
ing. The Sunday-school teacher should leave no unex- 
plored corners of the Book. We should be familiar with 
each of the sixty-six rooms of the King's palace. If 
there is one unlocked door, the room back of it may con- 
tain the rarest treasure of all, the greatest help for your 
teaching. Be sure that no Bible knowledge will come 



THE BOOK IN THE HEART 39 

amiss, and that the more you know about the blessed 
volume, the more you will love it. 

The Bible can get into the heart only through much 
study and earnest meditation, continued through a long- 
time. That is why the Bible emphasizes meditation upon 
the thoughts of God " in the night-watches " — because 
the Bible thinking that means the most is the unforced, 
voluntary, instinctive turning to the Book. Our minds 
must be upon the Bible as we take our walks, as we talk 
with our friends, as we wait for trains. We must carry 
the book with us, not only in our well-stocked memories, 
but also in our pockets. One after the other, take the 
Bible characters and events and make them essential por- 
tions of your lives. Above all, follow this course with the 
scenes and sayings of the current lessons. 

And if the Bible is thus in our hearts, our reverence 
for it will become quite apparent in our lives. It was 
worth a whole course of doctrinal sermons just to hear 
an aged clergyman of my acquaintance speak of " our 
precious Redeemer." I can still feel the vibrations of 
awe and affection that pulsed through the words, " our 
Saviour/ 7 as spoken in public prayer by Dr. George M. 
Adams, the commentator. For more than thirty years 
there has rung in my mind the majestic utterance of Doc- 
tor Moorehead as before a great audience he spoke of 
" this massive volume." I was greatly moved once as an 
artist friend told me of rescuing a Bible from a dirty 
bookstall, where it was flung in among tattered volumes, 
and of her habit never to lay any other book or article 
on top of a Bible. Such reverence will be disclosed by 
the very way you handle the Bible. Moreover, it is con- 



40 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

tagious; and if the love of the Bible is thus strongly in 
your heart, be sure that erelong it will be a living joy 
in the hearts of your pupils. 



XI 

THE HEAVENLY PARTNER 

I sometimes think that I should like to take a partner 
in my Sunday-school teaching. I often long for council 
and comfort and encouragement and all sorts of help. It 
would he good if I had some one to take my place now 
and then, and reach the pupils whom I am not succeed- 
ing in reaching, and inaugurate new plans, and show 
me how to be more effective. It would be the new broom 
that sweeps clean, and when I took my place again, I in 
turn would perhaps have the force of a new broom. 
I might teach part of a quarter and my partner 
the other part; or, we might alternate Sundays; or, 
each might teach a certain part of every lesson, and 
the one keep order while the other talked ! Dr. Peloubet 
once tried this plan of teaching in partnership, and it 
worked fairly well. 

But however a human partnership might work, every 
one of us may do infinitely better that that: every one 
of us may have a divine partnership. This thought is 
familiar to all of us, so familiar that it has become mean- 
ingless. We cannot do better for our teaching than make 
this thought vivid and full of meaning. 

What if the Lord Jesus should come into the Sunday- 
school room just before the pupils assemble, and as you 

41 



42 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

are laying out books and maps and the rest of your teach- 
ing outfit, and should sit down opposite you in a chair, 
and quietly say, " Do you know me, Miss Jones ? " 

He would have no long hair, He would be dressed in 
modern clothes; in outward appearance, as you look has- 
tily, He would be no different from the superintendent; 
but something in His eyes, his face, burns like a fire into 
your very soul. You do not dare to answer, or to say a 
word. It is not because you are afraid — you would as 
soon think of being afraid of your own brother; but it 
seems a possibility too great to put into words; rather, it 
seems impossible. 

But He answers your thoughts — as was always His 
w 7 ont, you will remember — and He says : " Yes, I am 
He, and I have come to help you teach. We have a 
few minutes. Just tell me how you planned to start this 
lesson." 

Then you go over your plans step by step, and He lis- 
tens, so pleased and eager that your plans brighten in the 
telling; and at every step He puts in just the suggestion 
needed to complete them and make them so that they 
must work. Every teacher knows what that means — ■ 
the one little final touch that insures success, and without 
it success is, oh! so problematical. 

As the children come in, He remains in the pupils' 
seats. He gives each a cheery nod : " Well, Helen, it's 
good to see your bright smile." " Eva, you know me, 
don't you ? Can't guess ? I know you, dear child." 
" Mary, how is that blessed mother of yours to-day ? 
Tell her some one is coming to see her this afternoon; 
some one with Home News; she'll understand." 



THE HEAVENLY PARTNER 43 

And how quiet the children are, but how happy ! Each 
wants to sit next to Him. He is like a big brother to 
them all. Even the worst girl in the class cannot keep 
her eyes off Him. Suddenly they fill with tears, for she 
has noticed a scar in the center of His hand. 

And how finely the lesson goes! How well you make 
your points, and how the visitor adds the touches of story 
and question and application needed to drive them home ! 
How well the children listen ! How prompt and thought- 
ful their replies ! And as you and the visitor linger after- 
wards, the worst pupil of the class comes up to say to you, 
almost in a whisper : " I should like to be His girl, and 
do just what He wants me to always. I did not know 
before that He was like that." 

Does all this seem too realistic? It is not half so real 
as the actuality may be. Let your imagination loose. 
Fancy all the help an all-wise and all-loving and all-pow- 
erful assistant might be to you. Put Him beside you in 
this and that emergency of your teaching. It will all 
be beneath the blessed possible reality. Our teaching is 
lonely and distressed and ineffective only because we do 
not realize and use this partnership. 

Sometimes in an earthly partnership one partner does 
it all ; the other is what is aptly called a " silent partner." 
He may be silent from choice or from compulsion. Some- 
times he gives only his money to the business, or only his 
name; or, he may have retired altogether from active 
service. 

But what if a young business man has for his partner 
a multimillionaire, who knows all about the business, 
and has made in it the greatest success of the world's his- 



44 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

tory, and is still in the prime of life and power, but the 
young business man makes him a silent partner? 

Is not that what we Sunday-school teachers do too 
sadly often with the Lord Jesus Christ % 



XII 

THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 

The uncertainty of the teaching process is one of the 
chief hardships of the teacher. He never knows whether 
his lesson will " go well " or not, whether or not it will 
get hold of the pnpil. Often, after the most careful 
preparation, he goes home with a headache, feeling that 
it is all useless, and that he has made a perfect failure. 
What teacher does not long for the certainties of the arts 
and of the exact sciences, where causes produce ef- 
fects and effects are exactly proportioned to causes? 
— so much coal, then just so much electricity, or just so 
many revolutions of the engine? But in our work it 
seems all chance, all a matter of good luck or bad luck. 

!Now this distressing doubt and vagueness is unneces- 
sary. It is to be obviated by faith — faith, which is the 
evidence of things not seen, which is the certainty of 
religion, which makes an exact science of these things of 
the Spirit. Faith shows and proves that nothing is in 
vain which we do for God. It is not so with our secular 
affairs. " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the even- 
ing withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which 
shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both 
shall be alike good." But it is different with, our spirit- 
ual seed-sowing: " Cast thy bread upon the w T aters; for 

thou shalt find it,' 7 though " after many days." To be 

45 



46 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

sure, some good seed is eaten by the birds, or withered 
by the heat, or choked by the thorns ; but enough is sure 
to spring up to give us a good harvest. " And I," said 
Christ, " if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
men unto myself." This He said at what a disadvantage 
of probability, yet with what confidence ! Thus if a 
teacher takes up his cross and follows Christ, he is certain 
to draw souls to Him. 

For this assurance of faith the teacher must get second 
sight, he must learn to see into the future. By his own 
past let him read the coming years of his pupils. How 
little he thought of his childhood teachers at that time, 
and how much he thinks of them now ! How little at- 
tention he then paid to what they said, and how now it 
all comes back to him! Thus will it be with his pupils 
in their turn. 

For this assurance of faith the teacher must get clair- 
voyance and see beneath the surface. He must find evi- 
dence of things not seen in a mere word or a softened 
look, or even without any exterior token at all. The 
changes you long to see will be mainly beneath the sur- 
face, and to be seen only by the eye of faith. Spiritual 
things are spiritually discerned. Do not expect outward 
manifestations, conditioning your faith upon them. 

But, whether you see results or not, be sure that causes 
produce results in all parts of God's creation. Be sure 
that Bible truths will not return to you void. Eead 
widely, and learn what these Bible truths have accom- 
plished all over the world, on mission fields, in evangel- 
istic campaigns, in the slums, over and over, with learned 
and ignorant, with old and young, with how many mil- 



THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 47 

lions! And are the members of your class the only ex- 
ceptions to their sway? Trust the Word. Trust the 
Spirit. Trust God's unvarying laws. 

But the child's will is free to reject or accept? Yes; 
and in spite of all your words and prayers and wisdom 
and love, and that of their parents and pastor and friends, 
some may reject the truth and go down into the eternal 
death. God will not force Himself on any soul, and 
thus reduce it to a no-soul, a thing. There is this awful 
possibility. But how few such results, with a faithful 
teacher! They are so few that we need not consider 
them for the marring of our assurance of faith. Even 
though some do stray, and seem for a time to be lost, in 
how many cases has memory of the blessed Bible truths 
reached about them the soft, firm arms of God's love, and 
drawn them back to safety and to Him ! 

So this is the climax and the crown of the twelve es- 
sentials for Sunday-school teaching. All the rest center 
upon it, flower into it. We cannot get this faith in our 
work at first and without experience. At the start we 
must take it on the testimony of older workers. But as 
we go on using these tools of which I have written, as we 
labor on in love of Christ, in love and understanding of 
our pupils, with industry and ingenuity, with tact and 
patience, with cheer and persistence, with the Bible in 
our heart and the heavenly Partner by our side, our faith 
and confidence will be growing all the time, firmly founded 
on what we shall see of the wondrous power of the Spirit. 
May God grant us in the end the full reward of faith as 
we meet every one of our pupils in our eternal home ! 



XIII 

PICTORIAL TEACHING 

Those that use in the teaching process only the ears of 
their scholars, and not their eyes, are half-way teachers. 
They get only half of the possible results. From our 
earliest days we are learning all the time through both 
these royal avenues; why not use them both, to the full, 
in teaching the truth of God? 

Many teachers hesitate to use the blackboard, or any 
method that includes drawing, because of fancied ina- 
bility. " I am no artist," they say, as if that settled it. 
But did you ever note the kind of drawing that children 
do in their play, the kind that evidently interests them 
vastly there ? It is crudest of the crude, mere dots and 
curves and wriggly lines ; yet such drawings please them 
better, and are more meaningful to them than Raphael's 
cartoons or Dore's or Tissot's Bible. And cannot you do 
as well ? 

The truth is that few teachers realize how much they 
can trust to the glorious imagination of the child ; and no 
teacher can realize this, or enter into the experience fully 
and splendidly, except in proportion as he also gets an 
imagination as fresh and active as the child's! Having 
it, a straight line becomes at once either Pharaoh or Solo- 
mon or Daniel or Paul, as the need requires, and a wrig- 
gle becomes the waves of the Red Sea or the Sea of 

48 



PICTORIAL TEACHING 49 

Galilee, or the Mediterranean with Jonah's whale just 
gone down. 

The lack of a blackboard is accepted bj most teachers 
as sufficient reason for failure to use this means of in- 
struction; but a pencil tablet, in the hands of the child 
himself, would be counted by him quite as good as a 
blackboard, perhaps better; why not also in the hands of 
the teacher ? You will need a very soft pencil or crayon, 
and a variety of colors; but with these, especially in a 
small class, a pencil tablet answers excellently. One great 
advantage of the tablet is that each scholar can have one, 
and can make his own drawing from yours as you draw, 
taking the result home as a souvenir, to store up for re- 
view day. 

But a portable blackboard is inexpensive, and may 
be quickly set up anywhere, even in a church pew; and 
in some ways it is better than a pencil tablet. One de- 
cided advantage is that you can rub out your drawing 
here and there, putting your pictorial personages in new 
situations and relations as the lesson story proceeds. 
If the scholars are provided with book-slates, soft slate 
pencils, and sponges, they may follow you in this operation, 
which will serve to bring the process of events more swiftly 
before them than if they and you were obliged to draw a 
new scene each time in a series of pictures. 

Let me emphasize the value of color in this work. 
It affords the easiest and clearest mode of differentiating 
the characters of your pictorial drama. If a red line is 
made for Christ, it will represent Christ in a year of les- 
sons, and in the greatest variety of situations — simply 
a red line. Thus a blue line will stand for Paul all 



50 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

through the Acts, and no more will be needed. It is not 
high art, but it is high imagination, which is no small part 
of high art. 

It is much better, by the way, not to use symbols for 
persons, such as a cross to represent Christ or a shep- 
herd's crook to represent David. Children do not think 
in symbols; does any one, for that matter? Simple 
straight and curved lines and simple dots and colors are 
better than all the stars and hearts and crosses that con- 
stitute the stock in trade of many an expert " blackboard- 
ist." 

I must make one exception. It will sometimes be 
found that symbols are useful to set forth, not persons, 
but ideas. For example, it will add interest to the lesson 
on the Ten Commandments, perhaps, if you associate each 
commandment with a flower — ■ that regarding worship 
with the sunflower because it follows the sun; that re- 
garding contentment with the violet; that regarding the 
Sabbath, the queen of days, with the rose, the queen of 
flowers; that regarding purity with the lily; that regard- 
ing profanity with tulips ; that regarding killing with 
the bleeding-heart; that regarding parents with everlast- 
ing; that regarding theft with the old-fashioned flower 
called honesty, and so on. The actual flowers could be 
shown, or the children could bring pictures cut from flor- 
ists' catalogues. Each child could print the command- 
ments on cardboard, and mount the flower pictures along- 
side. 

Whatever mode of pictorial teaching you employ, you 
will fail largely of results unless you have the children 
copy your work. This copying serves a double purpose: 



PICTORIAL TEACHING 51 

it keeps them attentive, and what they themselves do they 
will remember far better than what they merely see some 
one else doing. Indeed, it is better that the teacher should 
be as inexpert as the children, unless he can impart his 
expertness to the children. Skillful blackboard artists 
are very seldom effective Sunday-school teachers. They 
are interesting; but they lecture, they do not teach. It 
is a first essential that what you draw, the children shall 
be able in some fair sort to copy. 

To this end it is well to give the scholars at the be- 
ginning of each quarter or connected series of lessons little 
blank books which they are to make pictorial summaries 
of the work. The books may be brought to the class, and 
the drawings may be made in them there, or the scholars 
at home may transfer to them the copy they have brought 
from school. Still another way is to make the class 
drawings on uniform sheets, which may afterwards be 
bound together. The results should have a place in the 
school's annual exhibition of its work, the young artists 
being at hand to explain. 

Let me illustrate the kind of " drawings " with which 
I should begin by the example of the prodigal son. Set 
forth the parable in a series of squares. First scene: a 
simply outlined house front, two piles of money (little 
yellow circles), the father (a blue line) at the door, the 
prodigal (a red line) at the gate, the elder son (a green 
line — jealousy!) under a tree. Second scene: the prodi- 
gal (red line) surrounded by evil friends (yellow lines), 
and a pile of only two or three coins. Third scene: the 
swine (horizontal lines), the prodigal (red line bent over 
as in sorrow), the husks (green dots), no coins left. 



52 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

Fourth scene: the prodigal going home (red line leaning 
forward), the father hurrying to meet him (blue line 
leaning toward the red one). Fifth scene: the house 
front again, the ring (yellow circle), the fatted calf 
(brown oval), the prodigal and his father (red and blue 
lines side by side), the rejoicing party (brightly colored 
lines at different angles, as if dancing), the elder son (a 
green line under a tree). Simple enough; you certainly 
could do that. But too simple for the children's interest ? 
Try it and see. 

In the same simple way you may draw (and have the 
children draw) pictorial maps. For example, build up 
the map of the Sea of Galilee. At the northern end, 
wavy lines, a brown oval, and a red upright upon a wavy 
line, will represent the walking on the sea. Near by, a 
similar outline will picture the stilling of the tempest. 
On the eastern shore two circles and five little strokes will 
stand for the feeding of the five thousand. Below it, a 
series of circles will be the swine tumbling into the sea. 
On the western side, many little lines in the water will 
represent the wonderful catch of fish. An inverted V 
will represent the hill where was preached the Sermon 
on the Mount. Thus you may construct a pictorial map 
of all Palestine, or of Jerusalem, or of Paul's journeys, 
or of Joseph's journey to Egypt and his life there, or of 
the movements of Moses and the Israelites. And all 
of this, of course, is to be copied, step by step, by the 
scholars. 

I have known fine results produced by the use of paper 
dolls in Bible teaching The dolls may be figures cut 



PICTORIAL TEACHING 53 

from fashion magazines. Tissue paper, gilt paper, and 
sheets of colored paper, will furnish all the needed cos- 
tumes and scenery. A blank book may be made into a 
doll-house, each page representing some room or other 
scene in the story to be depicted. Thus, for example, 
the various episodes in the tale of Esther may be set forth. 
Such work sends the children to the Bible itself, and sets 
them to asking all kinds of valuable questions. Soon 
they become as familiar with the Bible stories they have 
acted out with their paper puppets as with the stories they 
made up for themselves on the playground. And is not 
that a glorious gain ? 

But of course it is not wise, in our pictorial teaching, 
to go no further than teacher or scholars can go. Some- 
times you may get an artist friend to draw an ideal scene 
or figure illustrating a lesson and show it to the class for 
their inspiration. Many of the world's greatest paint- 
ers and sculptors have chosen Biblical subjects, and prints 
or photographs of their works may be obtained easily and 
cheaply. There are many books that are full of these 
reproductions or of accounts of the pictures — such books 
as Farrar's or French's " Christ in Art," Barton's 
" Jesus of Nazareth," Hurll's " The Bible Beautiful," 
and Jameson's " Sacred and Legendary Art." Almost 
every lesson may be illustrated in this fine way. 

Most lessons, too, may be taught pictorially with the 
help of views of modern scenes, landscapes and customs, 
in Eastern lands. Stereoscopes and sets of stereoscopic 
pictures for use in this way are now to be obtained. A 
collection of Palestine views may be made, and hung on 



54 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

the wall, with pictures by great artists illustrating the 
current lessons. If you have no class-room, you can fas- 
ten the pictures by clamps to the back of the pew. 

If the pictures you obtain are black and white prints, 
it will add to the interest if you allow the children to take 
them home and color them. Let them be returned the 
next Sunday for comparison and for exhibition. Use 
them in the review. The children may be given blank 
books in which to paste these pictures, one to a page, 
with an account of each filling the page — all this for 
exhibition at the end of the year. Make it a rule that 
until a child has written the account of the last picture 
he is not to receive a new one. 

The wise teacher will use a picture whenever he can 
in his teaching. If he is only telling an anecdote about 
Napoleon, he will show a portrait of him. Therefore, 
it is impossible for the teacher's collection of pictures to 
be too large. He will clip them from all sorts of peri- 
odicals, and he will keep them, neatly arranged, in labeled 
envelopes, a subject to an envelope, so that he can in- 
stantly put his hand on what he needs. The children 
also will be encouraged to form collections of Bible pic- 
tures, each with his Bible Gallery in his own home; and 
the class may take occasional tours among the homes of 
the members, to inspect these galleries. 

What has been said of pictures applies also to models, 
and to all kinds of objects illustrative of our lessons. 
These also are highly useful in teaching through the eye, 
but they would require an essay by themselves. 

Let me only remind you, in closing, that the aim of all 
this is not play, though the children may think it is. The 



PICTORIAL TEACHING 55 

great aim of all picture teaching is to present the por- 
trait of Christ, and make a vivid imprint of His truth 
upon the heart. If our pictorial teaching is merely to 
amuse, it does not deserve the high name of teaching, let 
alone the higher name of the teaching of religion. 



XIV, 

HOW TO USE OBJECTS IN TEACHING 

A teacher that can draw, even fairly well, is twice a 
teacher. A teacher that knows how to use objects skill- 
fully is four times a teacher. 

We are dealing in our Sunday-school classes with the 
events of far-away times and countries, and often with 
abstract principles. When we introduce objects into our 
teaching, we strike at once a note of reality. Here is 
something substantial, and at once the lesson begins to 
assume solidity and convincingness. 

Besides, objects are most valuable in gaining and hold- 
ing attention. Take up something — anything — and 
hold it out before your scholars. Instantly every eye is 
fixed upon you, and every mind is intent. What is it ? 
And what are you going to do with it ? You have them 
fascinated, and it is your own fault if you do not win an 
entrance for the lesson truths through the gate you have 
thus opened. 

In discussing object lessons ; we must first lay down 
some negatives. 

Do not use far-fetched or crude comparisons. For ex- 
ample, if the lesson deals with Christ's temptation in the 
wilderness, when you come to the high mountain from 
whose summit the adversary showed Jesus all the king- 
doms of the world do not think to illustrate it by heap- 

56 



HOW TO USE OBJECTS IN TEACHING 57 

ing up a pile of wooden blocks. That would only render 
the story trivial. On the other hand, those wooden blocks 
will come in beautifully when you show the possible 
formation of the " hanging gardens " of Babylon. Sym- 
bols of great mysteries must not be paltry. Lighted 
matches must not represent the Pentecostal tongues of 
flame. A stuffed dove must not attempt to picture the 
Holy Spirit, nor may you show by a blast from a bellows 
how Elijah's whirlwind blew upon Mount Horeb! 

There is the danger, in the use of objects, that we shall 
confuse rather than explain. If the matter needs no 
explanation, our object teaching must be very simple and 
clear, or it will merely make an easy truth appear diffi- 
cult. In such a case, the use of objects is merely for 
emphasis. 

For example, all scholars know what is meant by pay- 
ing attention, and understand that if they are not paying 
attention, they get no good from the teaching. What 
they need is to have that fact emphasized. You may 
do this by taking a bottle, still corked, and attempting 
to pour water into it; of course the water will run down 
on the outside. " Now," you may say to the class, " when 
you are not paying attention, your minds are stopped up, 
and all my teaching runs off and away; none of it gets 
into your head." They will all listen to that, and 
they will never forget it. You will spoil it, however, as 
soon as you begin to go into details, as by calling the 
cork " attention." The children will at once begin to in- 
quire in their bright minds, " Are we to take away atten- 
tion, then, before we can get the teaching into our 
heads?" 



58 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

Or, you may wish to bring home to your scholars the 
folly of opening their minds to all sorts of pictures and 
books and papers and talk. " Your minds will be in 
a jumble/' you will say; and they will understand 
you perfectly. But if you would emphasize the truth, 
bring out a camera, insert a plate, and take pictures of 
various incongruous objects upon it, one after the other, 
getting the scholars to imagine the medley that will re- 
sult — Joe's head on top of the clock, with your bonnet on 
top of the whole ! 

Once more, you want to make the class realize how 
much more powerful for mischief is a temptation when 
the mind is prepared for it — by brooding over the sin, 
perhaps, and in other ways cultivating the desire. Take 
a bit of soft pine, with a thick end, and try to light it 
with a match; it will only char. Then split the end of 
the stick into a bunch of slivers and try your match 
again. It will immediately flash into flame. It has been 
prepared for the spark. 

Such illustrations as these, sharp and quick, not tedi- 
ously insisted upon and explained, will not confuse and 
will emphasize. Sparingly used, and with firm regard 
to one point alone, they are of great value. 

Some teachers when they begin to practise object-teach- 
ing, seem to think that they have not done their duty by 
a lesson unless they have introduced some object to illus- 
trate it, whether the lesson is adapted to that form of 
teaching or not. When, for example, you are teaching 
a parable, it is wretched pedagogy to illustrate it with 
another parable, either worded or in the form of an o]b- 



HOW TO USE OBJECTS IN TEACHING 59 

ject lesson. Save such aids for the vivifying and explain- 
ing of abstract truths. 

If, for instance, you are teaching the beatitude, 
" Blessed are the meek," you may advantageously show 
the class a full head of wheat hanging over, as picturing 
the humility of those that really possess the most ability. 
But if you are teaching the parable of the Good Samaritan, 
you have in the parable itself all the illustration you need. 
To lug in, for example, an account of a traveling crane 
moving about the shop and picking up heavy burdens, 
would be worse than a work of supererogation. 

Some teachers, also, seem to think that if one object 
lesson upon a theme is good, two object lessons upon the 
same theme will be twice as good; really, they are not 
half so helpful as one would be. For example, a good 
illustration of inattention is the failure to set the spring 
of the shutter in a camera, so that, no matter how much 
the bulb is squeezed, the plate is not exposed and no pic- 
ture is made. But if you have already used the bottle- 
and-cork illustration which I have just mentioned, do not 
allow any delight over the discovery of the camera com- 
parison to tempt you to indulge in it also. The two pic- 
tures would destroy each other. 

The best objects for use in this kind of work are those 
most closely and naturally allied to your theme. Per- 
haps the lesson is on the Creation, and you have some skill 
in sleight-of-hand. It will be a temptation, maybe, to 
" palm " a ball, and fling it mysteriously into the air 
from seeming nowhere, to " show how " the planets were 
tossed out into space by the Almighty. But no! That 



60 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

would be absurd and almost irreverent. A far better ob- 
ject lesson may be built upon a flower seed, laid beside 
a pot containing a grown plant of the same flower. Here 
is a bit of creation the children have seen in their own 
dooryards, and nature henceforth will have a new mean- 
ing to them, as being allied to those great and mysterious 
first days. 

It is a good rule not to use as an illustration of an 
ancient deed a modern implement or object quite dissimi- 
lar to the ancient one. For example, if the lesson is on 
Jehoiakim and the destruction of Jeremiah's writings, 
you will convey a very false impression if you take to the 
class some recent octavo and hack it to pieces with a four- 
bladed pocket-knife. 

I should teach the class to make for themselves a cabi- 
net full of representations of various objects of use or 
ornament in Bible times. Take the following as a par- 
tial list : dolls dressed so as to exhibit Oriental costumes ; 
paper dolls, with costumes painted from pictures ; a sling ; 
a flail ; a harp ; a chariot ; a book roll ; different forms of 
shields ; a water skin ; a table in the Roman form ; a shep- 
herd's staff; a fisher's boat and net; the model of an East- 
ern house, showing an " upper room " ; a lamp ; a loaf 
of bread ; coins (pictures cut out, pasted upon pasteboard 
and gilded or otherwise colored) ; a ram's horn ; artificial 
flowers and plants; models of the tabernacle and the tem- 
ple, with their contents. 

Some of these objects may be whittled from wood by 
the boys. Some may be molded from clay, putty, or 
chewing-gum. Some may be constructed of cloth, paper, 
or pasteboard. A little ingenuity will readily discover 



HOW TO USE OBJECTS IN TEACHING 61 

materials and tools. Whatever object is made, let it be 
fashioned large enough to be seen over a good-sized room, 
and let it be made strongly enough to use over and over. 
Though you may think you will never again have need 
of a certain object, there is always a " next time " in the 
experience of a zealous and wide-awake teacher, and it is 
a sad waste of strength not to build for the future, when 
you can do it so easily and build up with so little trouble 
a fine collection of teaching aids. 

It is a double advantage if you can interest your schol- 
ars in the making of these objects. You will thus attach 
them the more strongly to the class and to you, and you 
will find that these manual tasks will fix many a fact in 
their minds. Hold at your own home occasional class 
sociables solely for the purpose of providing some object 
or set of objects. An entire quarter, for example, might 
be spent in making a model of the tabernacle; and when 
it is done, your scholars will have learned something they 
can never forget. 

The school should be making a collection of genuine 
articles from the Holy Land. In these days of much 
travel such a collection is easily started, and will rapidly 
increase. Pressed flowers, sandals, hand mills, costumes, 
photographs, grains, all sorts of interesting objects, will 
find their way thither, and the energetic use of the collec- 
tion will add much to the sense of reality of the Scrip- 
tures. 

The making of a relief map of Palestine is well within 
the possibilities of the average class. Large and accurate 
maps are easily obtainable as a basis, and such a Bible 
dictionary as Hastings's will furnish all necessary addi- 



62 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

tional information. Glass over blue paint will represent 
the larger bodies of water, putty will build up magnificent 
mountains, little blocks of wood clustered together will 
represent towns and cities, masses of tiny evergreen twigs 
will be your forests, and a skillful use of the paint-brush 
will bring the whole into a workmanlike unity. You will 
be astonished to see how much of Bible geography and 
history you and your class will learn while constructing 
such a map, and how constantly you will use it after it is 
made. 

For magnifying bits of the relief map, to render more 
vivid the details of certain lessons, a sand tray is very use- 
ful. The kindergarten and primary department should 
not be allowed a monopoly of this serviceable adjunct of 
teaching. With damp sand and ready fingers you can 
build up (or, better, have your scholars build up) the 
scene of Elijah's Carmel miracle, or the pool of Bethesda, 
or the Horns of Hattin, or the Gadara shore, or the 
Jericho road where the luckless traveler fell among thieves, 
or the Nile shore with its bulrushes, or the hills, plain, 
and brook where David met Goliath. Match ends make 
fine people, colored differently to represent soldiers, priests, 
apostles, women, and so forth. You can enact in your 
sandy theater all the stirring Bible events. The chil- 
dren's quick imagination will supply the details, and the 
little exercise will impart to the lessons a surprising vivid- 
ness and picturesqueness. 

It is well to plan far ahead for this use of objects in 
teaching. Some lessons will require much thought to find 
suitable objects for use. Some objects are hard to make 
or to find. If you look ahead and form your plans in. ad- 



HOW TO USE OBJECTS IN TEACHING 63 

Vance, you will be astonished to see how much good ma- 
terial comes your way; but water flows only where there 
are hollows waiting to receive it. 

In teaching do not expose the objects, but keep them 
hidden till you have reached the precise point at which 
they belong. Then introduce them impressively, with a 
little flourish, perhaps, as if bringing forward a treat. 
Indeed, the vivacity with which you make use of objects 
will contribute much to their effectiveness. All parts of 
teaching are more successful if you manifestly enjoy the 
work. 

At the outset you may find it difficult to get ideas for 
object-teaching, and those that occur to you will not please 
you or seem effective. But persevere. Use your ideas, 
and more will come. Look for similitudes, and you will 
soon discover them. They leap everywhere upon the seek- 
ing mind. For example, writing this upon a railway 
train, I have just asked myself, " What Scripture truth 
would be especially hard to illustrate by an object les- 
son ? " The atonement came to my thought. Then I 
looked out of the window to see an illustration of the 
atonement. At once a coal-yard came into view. To be 
sure ! What is the coal but solidified sunlight, sunlight 
come down to earth, entered into a crude, dull, earthy 
form, giving itself a sacrifice for the lighting and heating 
of the world, and by that very sacrifice returning again to 
the air and sunshine from which it came ! I have found 
in a block of coal a very fair illustration of the atoning 
work of Him who was the Sun of Righteousness, but who 
took upon Himself our earthiness and the blackness of our 
sin. 



64 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

And finally, if after all proper search you fail to hit 
upon a suitable object lesson, never mind! You need not 
have an object lesson every time; it is quite as well not 
to. Emphasize the truth with a story, or a picture, or a 
poem, or some other device. The wise teacher always has 
more than one arrow in his quiver, more than one string 
for his bow. 



XV; 
SUNDAY SCHOOL AND SECULAR SCHOOL 

I think that any one who, like the present writer, has 
taught in both Sunday schools and secular schools, can 
hardly fail to recognize how much helpfulness each might 
gain from the other. The purpose of this chapter is to 
put a few stitches in our pedagogical Sundays and Mon- 
days, drawing them a little closer together. 

It is the fashion, I know, to decry Sunday-school teach- 
ing and exalt secular teaching in comparison; but that is 
a foolish fashion. Let the teachers of our public schools 
be unpaid, divest them of all authority, and give them 
their scholars, with no previous study, for only half an 
hour a week, and we should see no better results than 
we get from our Sunday schools. Indeed, the results 
would be distinctly inferior, for the secular teachers would 
not be fired with the same unselfish zeal in teaching arith- 
metic for their weekly half-hour that moves the Sunday- 
school workers in teaching Christ. 

This unpaid ardor goes far toward offsetting whatever 
advantages secular teachers may gain from their usually 
superior technical equipment. Certainly, though Sunday- 
school teachers have their scholars for so short a time, 
they are not less loved than secular teachers, and they 
have no less influence over their pupils. 

Indeed, there is much that any secular teacher might 

65 



06 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

learn, to his great profit, from a study of the methods of 
any successful Sunday school ; but the purpose of this chap- 
ter concerns only the Sunday-school teacher, and what he 
may gain from the secular schools. 

I have just learned about a new departure in the Sun- 
day school of Trinity Church, Boston — Phillips Brooks's 
church, as all men know. This school has set out to copy 
all the good points that may be copied from secular 
schools. It is to have regular courses, graded for differ- 
ent ages, and the scholars are to follow these courses and 
graduate. The history of the church and the biographies 
of great Christians will be studied, as well as the Bible. 
The year is to be divided into three terms, with a sum- 
mer vacation. Prompt attendance is to be required, as 
in the public schools. 

The experiment is certainly along right lines. It will 
impress the scholars, I am sure, with a new respect for the 
Sunday school. They will come to feel that it means 
business. 

Consider the matter of discipline. !No public school, 
not even the poorest, would tolerate the disorder to be 
found in almost the best Sunday schools. " But the pub- 
lic school teachers/' I repeatedly hear it said, " have au- 
thority, and their scholars know it and obey it." What is 
the source of that authority but the parents ? And what 
is to prevent the Sunday school from obtaining from the 
same source the same authority ? Properly appealed to, 
the parents will gladly give it, and will reinforce it by 
home discipline whenever necessary. 

Consider the matter of irregular attendance, so serious 
a hindrance to Sunday-school work. Sunday schools are 



SUNDAY SCHOOL AND SECULAR SCHOOL 67 

here at a great disadvantage as compared with secular 
schools, which have authority to compel attendance. But 
here again the source of authority, if you trace it up, is 
the parents — the same parents that send their children to 
the Sunday school. I believe that if the parents were 
gathered together, and if some clear-cut speaker should 
point out to them the supreme value, for time and eternity, 
of their children's Sunday-school lessons, and should show 
how little time is given them compared with the time 
spent in secular studies, and how very necessary it is, 
therefore, that they should come with great regularity — 
I believe that, if this appeal were made, the parents would 
respond with a willing determination that would bring 
Sunday-school attendance up to the level of the secular 
school. 

Another particular in which Sunday schools are yet far 
behind secular schools is the matter of grading. The in- 
definiteness of Sunday-school work, the lack of progress, 
of promotion, of stints and goals, is its most serious lack 
to-day. And it is a lack which may be remedied with 
comparative ease, without departing at all from the uni- 
form lessons. 

Few grades should be established at first; let it be a 
growth. Let the officers and teachers determine, to start 
with, what ought to be known by the primary scholars 
before they are allowed to graduate into the intermediate 
department. Perhaps you will require a knowledge of 
the leading facts in the lives of twelve Old Testament 
characters — say, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, 
Moses, Euth, Samuel, David, Elijah, Esther, Daniel. Also, 
outlines of the stories of Christ and of Paul. Also, in 



68 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

memory, the Commandments, the Twenty-third Psalm, 
and the Beatitudes. 

In the same way, fix upon the requirements you will lay 
down for graduation from the intermediate to the senior 
department. You will want fuller biographical knowl- 
edge, an outline of the history of Old and New Testa- 
ment times, and you will add the principal Christian doc- 
trines, perhaps in the form of some catechism. 

After the scope of these two departments is clearly de- 
fined, and the definition put into familiar practice, it will 
be time to go on to the senior department, where you will 
want to establish courses in advanced study, such as the 
International Committee has laid down. Schools vary so 
greatly in their capability that probably no one can fix 
your curriculum for you. My plea is that you fix it for 
yourselves, however roughly, slowly, and tentatively; that 
you give diplomas ; that you hold out before the scholars 
the incentive to definite accomplishment, a course to run, 
a goal to reach, an olive wreath on the goal-post. 

Grading and promotion carry with them as essentials 
the use of another secular school method — persistent and 
searching examinations. Until the scholars got used to 
the idea, I would make a written test a part of every Sun- 
day's lesson. It need not take long, if you have pencils 
and paper all ready, and if you so frame your questions 
that they can be fully answered very briefly. Do not dis- 
courage the pupils ; begin with questions you know they 
can easily answer, and increase the difficulty as your schol- 
ars become more confident. 

Another secular-school peculiarity that should accom- 
pany grading is the fixing of teachers in certain grades. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL AND SECULAR SCHOOL 69 

Sentimental reasons have led many Sunday schools to al- 
low one class to retain one teacher from infancy to ma- 
turity, if, as seldom happens, the class holds together for 
so long. Think how foolish this practice would appear in 
the public schools ! Some teachers cannot be excelled in 
the high school, but they would be quite at sea in a kinder- 
garten. Remaining for years in a single grade, secular 
teachers become familiar with their subjects, and with the 
characteristics of children of a certain age, and know 
just how to manage them both so as to get the best results. 
Moreover, every teacher has his own peculiar excellence, 
and the scholar, passing from one to another, has a chance 
to gain the excellences of all. It should be thus in the 
Sunday school. And when it is, our Sunday-school teach- 
ers will begin to take more pride in their work, and qual- 
ify for it. The restriction of its limits will put it within 
comprehensible bounds, and make it possible for the 
teacher to become a master. 

That, indeed, is another important respect in which 
Sunday schools may learn from secular schools. Sunday- 
school teachers do not, as a class, proudly recognize their 
teaching as a profession. Secular teachers in many States 
are required to have a normal-school training. Every- 
where, they must prove their fitness by examinations. 
Everywhere, they must maintain their fitness by study, if 
they would hold their positions, and they must broaden 
their outlook by attendance on vigorous conventions and 
the reading of professional books and periodicals. 

All this, happily, is coming to be true of Sunday-school 
teachers. Normal schools for them are springing up. 
Normal text-books for home use are multiplying. They 



70 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

have admirable books on the art of teaching in Sunday 
schools, and they have most excellent periodicals for their 
special work. They also have their conventions, inspiring 
and practical. What is needed is that Sunday-school 
teachers come to use these facilities for growth as faith- 
fully as secular teachers use theirs ; and I believe that, as 
graded schools multiply, this zeal for a pedagogical equip- 
ment will increase. 

Closer contact between Sunday-school teachers and secu- 
lar teachers would be good for both classes of workers. 
They have to do, in any community, with the same sets 
of children, and it is strange that they so seldom coop- 
erate. 

Much is gained, every way, when secular teachers will 
teach in the Sunday schools. They reach, then, all sides 
of their children. They have a far stronger hold upon 
them. And their expert training is of inestimable ad- 
vantage to the Sunday school. Nor, to one whose busi- 
ness is teaching, need the one additional hour a week prove 
a heavy burden. 

But, since most secular teachers wish to drop teaching 
wholly for Sunday as well as Saturday, the next best 
thing is for the two classes of workers to get together 
now and then. Occasionally have the public-school su- 
perintendent or one of his teachers address the Sunday 
school, at a concert or a regular session, on temperance, 
patriotism, or some other special theme. Let the Sunday- 
school teachers visit the public schools often, seeing their 
scholars in their chief setting and noting the methods of 
teaching that are successful there. Perhaps the teachers 
will agree to pay such a visit twice a month for a year. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL AND SECULAR SCHOOL 71 

When a public-school convention is accessible, announce it 
in the Sunday school, and urge the teachers to attend, and 
to seize upon whatever applies to the Sunday school. 
Circulate among the teachers some of the text-books on 
child-psychology and pedagogy that secular teachers study. 

Nothing, however, is more useful than for the two 
classes of teachers to meet socially. Prepare a pleasant 
supper, preferably at a private house, and invite both 
Sunday-school and public-school teachers to enjoy a meal 
together, spending the evening afterwards in talking about 
the children they are teaching. After a comparison of 
views and exchange of experiences by conversation, the 
evening may close with the open discussion of some teach- 
ing problem that concerns all alike, such as discipline, or 
home study, or the cooperation of parents. 

Following such a gathering as this, the public-school 
teachers might be persuaded to go to the Sunday school 
and watch the methods used there, and then, at the next 
teachers' meeting of the Sunday school, frankly give their 
impressions, and make suggestions for the betterment of 
the work. The secular teachers would probably wish the 
Sunday-school teachers to return the visit and repay the 
criticisms. If they did not, the loss would be theirs. 

As the result of such intercourse, I should expect the 
best of secular-school methods to be introduced into our 
Sunday schools : written tests, much use of blackboard and 
pencil and paper, the making of maps, the writing of es- 
says, the preparing of diagrams and charts, the use of ob- 
ject teaching, and such introduction of the secular studies 
the scholars are pursuing — their history, science, geog- 
raphy, literature — as will make them see how vital is the 



72 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

Bible, and how it fits into modern life. Both scholars and 
teachers would gain broader views, and fresh incentives. 

As I have said, this association of the Sunday-school 
and secular-school forces seems so obviously the thing to 
do that the wonder is that it has remained so long undone. 
I hope that this chapter may prompt many schools to make 
at least a beginning in this direction. 



XVI 

HOW TO TALK TO CHILDREN 

Of all things that man can do, the most blessedly fruit- 
ful is wise talking to children. This is the supreme art. 
!N"o sculptor molds a statue so superb as a growing life. 
No artist has ever painted a picture that compares with a 
lovely character. The architect cannot rear a building, 
the poet cannot write an ode, the inventor cannot design 
a machine, that is worthy to stand for an instant beside 
the completed, living, loving, achieving product of wise 
teaching. 

If this is true — and it is true with an emphasis that 
men are only beginning to feel — then no art is so well 
worth learning, so well worth the spending of time and 
the taking of pains, as the art of talking to children. And 
how little the art is studied ! How much attention, even 
in the training of ministers and of secular teachers, is 
paid to the things that are to be taught, and how little is 
paid to the vitally important means of getting the things 
that are to be taught into the minds and lives of the boys 
and girls ! How much weak, flabby, and uninteresting 
talk is addressed to the poor innocents ! But they have 
their happy and appropriate revenge. They do not lis- 
ten to it, or pretend to ! 

I suppose the first of all faults in talking to children 

73 



74 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

— as, indeed, is commonly recognized — is the fault of 
" talking down " to them. Why down f If we must all 
become as little children, if their characteristics are, on 
the whole, the standard of the kingdom of heaven toward 
which we profess to be striving, why not talk up to them ? 
Would not reverence be a more appropriate attitude than 
condescension ? 

The first essential for all successful talking to children 
is a profound respect for them. We are to respect their 
purity, the keenness of their fresh, unspoiled minds. We 
are to value their good opinion, and count their love a 
very crown of glory. We are to enjoy them, to like to be 
with them, to love them dearly. 

I have heard persons say, without at all realizing the 
depth of their confession, " I cannot seem to care for 
children. They tire me." And I have heard those same 
persons complaining peevishly because children would not 
be influenced by them. Men and women of brilliant in- 
tellects are sometimes complete failures as talkers to chil- 
dren, just because they do not care for children; and the 
children, in about one-fourth of a second, find it out! 
Not to care for children is not to care for the first essen- 
tial for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. One who 
does not care for that cannot talk helpfully about religious 
matters to children or any one else. 

The first essential, then, for talking to children, is to 
like the children. The second, is to like to talk. If your 
tongue is stiff, if talking is awkward for you, if you shrink 
from it and do not leap toward the chance for it, then you 
will not get into touch with the children. They have no 
trouble in talking, and they cannot understand yours ! 



HOW TO TALK TO CHILDREN 75 

The cure for this very real difficulty is just talking. 
As Edward Everett Hale says in his. advice to those that 
would become public speakers : " Make a speech when- 
ever any one is fool enough to ask you to." Lose no op- 
portunity of talking to children. Talk to them at their 
play. Eling little bits of talk at them as you pass them on 
the street. Talk with them one by one and in groups. 
Watch yourself. Watch others that do it better than you. 
Leam from your failures. If the children draw away 
from you, if they are reserved in your presence, or if they 
persist in showing you the worse side of their natures, the 
fault is not in them, nor is it in you if you really love 
them ; it is in your manner, and manners can be changed. 
Be satisfied with a little improvement, however gradually 
it comes. Art is long, and this is the greatest of all arts. 

The third essential in talking to children is to have 
something you very much want to say. It must be some- 
thing very definite ; you must know exactly what it is, and 
you must be on fire with impatience to get it said. Is 
not that the way the children talk? The child is fairly 
bursting with his news or his thought. He quivers with 
eagerness to speak it. He cannot be repressed. If com- 
pelled first to raise his hand, that hand is waved excitedly. 
That is the way children talk to one another, and they 
will not respond to any other manner in you. 

Here is a teacher without any clear-cut idea of the les- 
son to be taught, without any clearly discerned climax 
toward which the lesson is to be conducted, and without 
any ardor of longing to make a certain impression and 
produce a certain result. Can this vagueness, this indif- 
ference, attract the businesslike children ? Watch a girl 



76 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

rush in to her playmate's house. " Oh, Belle ! Some- 
thing's going to happen ! Guess what ! " Then compare 
it with the way you go at the teaching of the Sunday- 
school lesson, and draw your own conclusions. 

If the third essential for talking to children is to have 
something you very much want to say, the fourth essen- 
tial is to know just how you are going to say it. To he 
sure, the children form no plan for their talk with one 
another ; but here that talk ceases to be a model, for it is 
scrappy, inter jectional, communicative but not construc- 
tive. It is a whiff here and a whiff there, and in the 
meanwhile they are racing all over the house. Our Sun- 
day-school talk with them must be something far higher 
and more difficult. The plan of it cannot be trusted to 
the inspiration of a moment. 

The best talkers to children, those whose talk moves 
most easily and brightly and with the least apparent ef- 
fort and premeditation, have meditated the most earnestly 
and carefully upon it beforehand, have perfected their 
plan and drilled themselves in all its details with a 
minuteness and an assiduity that would be the marvel of 
the poor teacher or even the average one. They leave 
nothing to " the inspiration of the moment.' 7 They know 
that moments have inspiration quite in proportion to the 
moments of thorough preparation that have preceded 
them. Their seemingly off-hand remarks are thought out 
and led up to. They leave nothing to chance. No art 
leaves anything to chance. 

This ardor of plans and preparation is what saves a 
man when he is called upon suddenly to talk to children 
entirely without preparation. I remember visiting a Sun- 



HOW TO TALK TO CHILDREN 77 

day school once with Hezekiah Butterworth, and I shall 
not forget my trepidation when asked to speak to the chil- 
dren in the presence of that master of the art. But my 
long habit of planning talks to children came into play. 
Fumbling hastily and despairingly in my pockets for 
some object that might give me an idea, I hit upon two 
lead pencils. " What does the lead pencil do ? " I asked 
myself. " It expresses something," I answered ; and I 
had my talk. With my hand still in my pocket, I broke 
off the lead in one pencil so that it did not show at all, 
while the other was left well pointed. Then I stepped 
confidently before the children. 

" What is this ? " I wanted to know, holding up the 
maimed pencil. It was a pencil. They were sure it was. 
I had my doubts. What does a pencil do ? It writes, 
they told me. So I took a piece of paper from my pocket 
and showed them that the little stick of wood could not 
write. Then I proposed that we ask the stick of wood 
itself. They agreed, and I began to hold a conversation 
with the pencil, placing it close to my ear to get its re- 
plies and pass them on to the children. The pencil's 
name, it appeared, was Mr. Brokenoff. He came from a 
Russian family. He was a lead pencil, but his lead was 
far down in the wood, where it did no good. But he 
wanted to know why the children were laughing at him. 
Some of them, belonged to the Brokenoff family, too. I 
asked the children if they wanted him to explain. Of 
course they did. So the pencil, in a faint little squeak 
that I had to interpret, told about the child that never 
said " Thank you," to human beings or to God ; and the 
child who " knew it, but couldn't tell it," and the child 



78 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

that didn't answer when spoken to, and other children that 
may have had good thoughts and kind thoughts in them, 
but did not get them out on their tongues. The children 
admitted that all such folks belonged to the same family 
as poor Mr. Brokenoff. 

Then I produced the sharpened pencil, and introduced 
him as Mr. Pointed. A similar dialogue was held with 
him, with more hopeful results. He belonged to the 
bright, happy family of those that speak out the gratitude 
and love and knowledge that are in their hearts. The 
children all wanted to belong to his family. 

That simple little talk, to which the children listened 
with all their eyes, ears, and brains, I have since greatly 
amplified with the aid of a jackknife and other apparatus; 
but the essence of it came to me in that flash of suggestion 
as I felt in my pockets for something to talk about. I 
describe it as an illustration of the extemporaneous ability 
that is the result of long planning and practice, and that 
never, never comes otherwise. 

I describe it also as an illustration of one or two essen- 
tials of effective talk to children about which I wish next 
to speak ; and the first of these — • the fifth of my list — is 
animation. I do not mean that nervous, Jack-in-the-box 
sprightliness which so many affect when they come before 
the long-suffering young people, but I mean the same sort 
of animation which the children themselves so abundantly 
exhibit — their faces shining with interest, their eyes 
sparkling, their hands gesturing, their minds alert. The 
children are themselves so much alive that they endow 
with life everything that they touch. You must be and 
do the same. If you give such a pencil talk as I have 



HOW TO TALK TO CHILDREN 79 

described, you must handle that pencil, not as if it were 
a bit of dead wood, but as if it were a tiny little man. 

The sixth essential is akin to that, namely, picturesque- 
ness. Talk concretely and not abstractly. Of course it 
helps wonderfully to have some object in your hands, if 
only a broken lead pencil; but what I mean just now is 
the translation of truth into life. For example, I did not 
make Mr. Brokenoff speak of " the lack of self -expres- 
sion," or even of " a failure to manifest gratitude." He 
squeaked out, " There's a girl down there, and someone 
gave her a piece of candy yesterday, and she never said 
1 Thank y', ma'am.' " Don't talk to the children about 
covetousness ; talk about old Mr. Grind, who holds a dime 
so close to his eyes that it shuts out all the rest of the 
world; or, talk about Mr. Mean, who keeps the deacon 
waiting with the collection-box while he hunts for the 
smallest coin in his purse. 

Prom that same pencil illustration I deduce also my 
seventh essential, namely, a bit of fun. The life of the 
little talk was the pretended conversation with the pencils, 
the holding them close to my ear, the requests that they 
" speak just a little louder, if you can," the asking the 
children if they could hear. All children are fun-loving, 
and a little whiff of play or joke will wash down their 
minds a deal of wholesome truth. For example, I have 
one talk which I call " Jimmie's Shoes." It is a piece of 
moralizing — stiff moralizing — from beginning to end ; 
but the children never suspect it, because with almost the 
first sentence I trot out two dirty little shoes — boy's 
shoes — • with stuffed red stockings rising out of them as 
natural as life, and through all the talk they are perform- 



80 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

ing their antics just as if the live Jimmie were in them 
• — ■ kicking, stamping, running away from school, loitering 
on errands, scuffing through the dust and mud, and the 
like, until, after suitable experiences, Jimmie's shoes be- 
gin to walk in the right way. 

Such a bit of fun will carry any talk, however serious 
inherently, to a triumphantly successful conclusion. But 
what if — as some folks say — you " have no fun in 
you " ? What if " fun is not natural to you " % Then 
change your nature! Just make a beginning at it, and 
see, to your delight, how the ability will grow. At first 
your fun will be elephantine, very likely; but in time it 
may become — -well, even kittenish! 

The eighth essential for talking to children, and the 
last I shall name, is that it must touch life in its eternal 
interests. Children are idealists. We are to be practical 
in our talk with them, but it must be a practicality that 
takes hold of heaven. Through all our fun must run the 
gold thread of an earnest purpose. All our planning must 
have one goal, and that is character. 

" This one thing I do " is the secret of success in talk- 
ing to children, as in everything else; and the one thing 
is soul-saving. To that one end Paul used many means, 
and so must we ; but always in strict subordination to the 
one end. Many, when they set out to talk to children, 
make the talk itself the virtual end. It is too elaborate, 
it has too many points, it confuses with its chemicals and 
its drawings and its stories and its acrostics. No real im- 
pression is made, but merely a sort of rainbowish blur. 
A talk to children should be simple and clear, and brief 
enough to admit of repetition and emphasis. Every Sun- 



HOW TO TALK TO CHILDREN 81 

day-school lesson has one teaching which should be made 
to stand out like the Matterhorn. Don't make of it a per- 
plexing mountain range. 

And above all things, keep yourself out of sight ! Talk- 
ing to children is not a matter of talk, but of children; 
not a matter of showing off your own skill or tickling 
their fancy, but a matter of life or death, for time and 
eternity. It is, as I said at the beginning, the most seri- 
ous and important work in which man can engage, and, 
if it is successful, it is the most blessed and fruitful. 
May we be guided in it by the Spirit of Christ, who spake 
— to children as well as their elders — as never man 
spake ! 



XVII 

BIBLE LESSONS B. C. 

Bible Lessons B. C. are those that are unrelated to A. 
D. 1912, or whatever may be the year, month, and day 
in which they are tanght. They are lessons that stop 
short somewhere before A. D. 100, and never touch our 
present-day perplexities. They are lessons for informa- 
tion and not for inspiration, for learning and not for life. 
They may teach ancient history and abstract ethics, but 
they do not teach conduct or form character. Bible les- 
sons B. C. are those that have no bearing on the living 
world, and, if such lessons are not taught anywhere in 
your Sunday school, I should like an invitation to it ! 

To be sure, those lessons were once electric with fiery 
power. You are dealing with words that made kings 
tremble, that lifted nations from the depths to the heights, 
that thrilled men's souls like the battle-cry. They can do 
it still. They will do it still, whenever they are brought 
into contact with living men and events, as they were 
flung up against them when they were first spoken or 
written ; but not if they are allowed to remain B. C. 

Bible lessons B. C. are failures — not necessarily as 
literary efforts, but always as religious efforts. For re- 
ligion is dead unless it is related to life. If your teach- 
ing of the parable of the prodigal son does not make your 
pupil feel its bearing on the next man he sees staggering 

82 



BIBLE LESSONS B. C. 83 

down street, you might as well be teaching the Trojan 
War. If your exposition of the Sermon on the Mount 
does not apply to the grocery on the next corner, you 
might as well be expounding Cicero De Senectute. If 
Elijah has no message for Tommy Jones, it makes little 
difference what message he had for Ahab. 

Let us allow no one to surpass us in desire for accurate 
and thorough scholarship. These great events are worth 
learning about in themselves. These great men and 
women are worth meeting in themselves. When we meet 
them, we cannot help being ennobled by them. Ah, yes, 
when we meet them! And we cannot meet them when 
they are left B. C. 

How can we avoid this eold, impersonal, academic mode 
of teaching? How can we teach lessons in A. D. 1912? 
How can we relate the Bible to the life of to-day ? 

First, by relating it to our own life. ~No teacher can 
make the Bible vital to others until it is vital to himself. 
In studying each lesson his first query should be, " What 
lesson is here for my own heart ? What example is here 
for me to imitate ? What warning is here ? What com- 
mandment to obey ? " This search as far surpasses any 
intellectual stimulus to study as the investigation of a 
mountain made by a miner prospecting for gold is more 
eager than that made by a government engineer. 

In the second place, we can bring the Bible down to 
the present times by studying each lesson with the lives 
of our scholars in view. The true teacher will ask every 
week, " How can I bring that bit of Bible next Sunday 
into the life of Lucy Greene, and help her over her lazi- 
ness? into the life of Ned Marston, and help him over 



84 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

his tendency to evil companionship % into the life of Law- 
yer Bankin, and help him over his doubts and into the 
joy of believing 1 " 

To do this the teacher must, of course, know his schol- 
ars' lives, their helps and hindrances, their needs and pow- 
ers. He must see them in their homes and draw them 
into his home. He must walk with them and talk with 
them, play with them and study with them. He must 
know their parents and know them through their parents. 
He must be willing to spend time and take pains in order 
to know his scholars' lives. Life is never to be learned 
save at the cost of time and pains. 

Undoubtedly, though there will be something in each 
lesson for the life of every scholar, some lesson will be 
especially adapted to the needs of Susan Gregg, and an- 
other lesson to the needs of Archibald Anderson. For 
many reasons the wise teacher will look far ahead in the 
list of lessons, and for no reason more urgently than for 
this — that he may plan his campaign of character-build- 
ing. Of course, when the special day comes whose lesson 
is best calculated to meet the needs of Susan Gregg, that 
particular scholar may be absent from the class. But 
even then she may be reached by a letter; and in many 
cases, indeed, the most effective way to make these per- 
sonal applications of the lessons is to write strong and 
hearty letters to your scholars, handing them out in the 
class or sending them through the mail. 

In the third place, we can avoid Bible lessons B. C., and 
relate the lessons to this present world, by studying each 
lesson with the world in view. For this purpose also we 
must look ahead, and ever bear in mind the lessons for 



BIBLE LESSONS B. C. 85 

several months in advance. It is an excellent plan to 
keep a little blank book, which you will carry with you, 
assigning a page to each lesson, and writing its topic at the 
head of the page. Then, as you read the newspapers, or 
converse with others, or observe the life around you, ask 
for each event as it arises, " What coming lesson does it 
illustrate ? Which of their teachings does it exemplify \ " 
You will be quite certain to place it somewhere and most 
suitably. 

Get the aid of the scholars in this matter; the applica- 
tions they themselves make they will be the most likely 
to remember. One scholar each week might be appointed 
for the purpose of bringing before the class a single point 
in which the lesson fits our modern life. He might be 
called the " A. D." scholar, and it should be made an 
honor to receive this appointment. 

The newspapers, those " mirrors of the times," are use- 
ful adjuncts in this attempt to relate the Bible to modern 
life. Of course, there are some newspapers to which no 
Sunday-school scholar should be sent, and on this point 
it would be well to consult each parent; but most locali- 
ties support at least one clean journal, and the summaries 
of the week's news given in the religious press and in the 
secular weeklies are in many cases complete, able, and en- 
tirely satisfactory. 

With that proviso, then, I suggest the appointment of a 
newspaper reader for your class, a different scholar each 
week. He will be called the " Reporter," and he may 
wear a badge marked " Reporter." The scholars 
will receive the distinction in turn. Each reporter must 
study the lesson first, and then study the news of the 



86 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

week to see how it carries out the teachings of the lesson, or 
would have been changed if the teachings of the lesson had 
been followed. 

For example, the lesson is on John the Baptist and 
Herod. Your reporter will note some iniquity of the day 
that needs a reformer, or he will describe the bold work 
of some modern John the Baptist confronting some mod- 
ern Herod — some thief in politics, perhaps, or some op- 
pressor of the poor, or some royal autocrat against whose 
iniquitous rule the people have risen in revolt. 

The teacher will need to assist most scholars in this 
search for points of contact between the old and the new ; 
at least, this help will be necessary at the start. But the 
teacher will have his notebook to draw upon, and the 
scholars will soon become independent of his aid. 

Beferences to history — to any history that is modern 
— will serve to attach the Bible narratives to our present 
day. The parallels, for instance, are many and close be- 
tween the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and the 
abolition of slavery in America. David's combat with 
Goliath may be compared to the struggle of the Nether- 
lands with Spain. Elijah on Carmel made no bolder 
stand for Jehovah than the missionaries before the king 
of Uganda. Livingstone was a modern Joshua, and one 
need not look far for modern Ninevehs. 

And so, if the class is old enough, I should add to the 
class Keporter a class Historian. He should be a good 
scholar, and an enthusiast for history. You will hardly 
be able to appoint a different scholar each week, but the 
office will be somewhat of a permanency. Indeed, the 



BIBLE LESSOXS B. C. 87 

work is so difficult that you will be obliged to come often 
to the historian's aid with jour fuller knowledge and 
your readier wit. Historical parallels may not be found 
always, even then ; but when they are found, they do much 
to vitalize the lessons. 

Classes that are still older may add to the Reporter and 
the Historian a Sociologist. This exalted personage will 
consider for each lesson its bearing on modern society in 
the widest aspects — on trade and labor, on wealth and 
poverty, on crime and prisons, on war and government. 
This member of your class must be something of a philos- 
opher; he must see things in the large. He must be able 
also to interest others in these large questions, and he and 
the teacher will have a noble opportunity to exhibit the 
Bible as the one book of social principles, amply adequate 
to solving the many problems and harmonizing the many 
discords of modern society. 

And now I think that I need not apologize for this 
chapter, as if I were introducing a distracting feature, 
likely to withdraw interest from the Book itself and divide 
honors with it. !N"ot at all. I know of no line of study 
that so compels faithfulness and thoroughness of Bible re- 
search as this application of the Bible to modern life. 
We must know the Bible of the past before we can make 
it the inspiration of the present. This fitting of the Bible 
to present-day problems is not a substitute for Bible 
study, but a stimulus to it. 

And, studied in this way, how vital the old Book be- 
comes ! It is seen at once to be of all times and of all na- 
tions. It solves perplexities, removes difficulties, com- 



88 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

forts sorrows, overcomes enemies, to-daj as in the times of 
Paul, David, or Moses. It is a spring of living water, break- 
ing out afresh in every century from the underlying love 
of God, always adequate, always new, and always divine. 



XVIII 

THE TEACHER'S IMAGINATION 

Undoubtedly the first essential for a successful Sunday- 
school teacher is a burning desire to acquaint his scholars 
with Jesus Christ ; but I am inclined to think that the sec- 
ond essential is an alert imagination. 

The imagination is the faculty of putting yourself in 
another's place. The other person may be one of the 
characters of the lesson, and his place may be in a strange 
and far-away land, in ancient days; or, he may be one 
of your own scholars. In either case, your insight into 
the lesson you are to teach, or the scholar who is to be 
taught, will depend upon this faculty of imagination. 

It is a divine faculty, for God alone has it in perfec- 
tion. He alone can completely put himself in another's 
place, knowing another's thoughts and experiencing an- 
other's emotions. It is the faculty of poets, also, their 
sympathetic minds pressing eagerly into experiences re- 
mote from their own. 

Both brain and heart are required for the act of im- 
agination. The intellect must be strong to comprehend 
and love must be quick to apprehend. You cannot put 
yourself in another's place unless you understand what 
that place is. You will never be anything but a stranger 
in that place unless you take a deep interest in the life 
you are seeking to enter. 

89 



90 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

All lives that are entered in this way enrich the thinker. 
They are new homes to him. Every one of them adds to 
his spiritual estate. He becomes through this masterful 
quality of the imagination a citizen of many lands, the 
familiar of many abodes. He can never lack the pleasant 
employment of visiting these dwellings of the spirit, and 
he can never be lonely. 

Some matter-of-fact persons look with suspicion, not to 
say scorn, at all exercise of the imagination upon the 
Bible. They appear to regard it as a process of adding 
to those sacred words. Both addition and subtraction 
there are indeed at our peril, and certainly I should be the 
last to advocate such operations. But imaginative treat- 
ment of the Bible is not falsifying it ; rather, it is the best 
way of getting at the truth of it. It is not the concocting 
of a fairy story, but the discovery of history. It is not 
" making up " what never happened ; it is " making real " 
by perceiving what must have happened, but is not re- 
corded. 

For the Scripture narratives are wonderfully con- 
densed. Writing was not, in ancient times, a matter of 
easy dictation to a stenographer, or of swift gallop along 
the keys of the typewriter. A stylus was a different affair 
from a fountain pen, and papyrus cost more than your 
pencil tablet. Writing was not only difficult but it was 
unusual, and men had not learned to color a gallon of 
words with a gill of thought. Modern writers do all our 
work for us. They leave no gaps to be filled by medita- 
tion and imagination. They give us food that is cooked, 
garnished, predigested. But the ancient writers give us 
the unground grain ; we hardly know what to do with it. 



i 
THE TEACHER'S IMAGINATION 91 

If, in a modern newspaper, such an event were chron- 
icled as the raising from death of the widow's son at 
Nain, would it be passed off with four inches of fine type 
in the inner corner of Section Four, page 32 ? If it were, 
how many would read it % 

But no ! It would be given a scarehead, with a plenti- 
ful supply of heads in addition. The portrait of the 
young man would appear, and of his mother, and of the 
Healer. There would be a picture of the funeral proces- 
sion, and of the dead man just coming to life upon his 
bier. 

A reporter would have interviewed every spectator of 
the scene and all the members of the family, and the ex- 
periences and feelings of each would be set forth vividly. 
The account would go back over the family history. It 
would tell about the father — who he was, and what a 
loss was his death to the widow. It would recount the 
mother's struggles to feed the boy and clothe him and 
give him an education. It would state the opinion of his 
teachers regarding him; he was a lad of much promise. 
Neighbor Daniel, the banker, would confide to the re- 
porter the fact that he had had his eye on the boy for a 
long time. " Sure to rise," says Mr. Daniel. The young 
man had already begun to earn money. His mother saw 
the beginning of all her fond anticipations. 

And then came the cruel fever. Its duration, in that 
fierce Eastern clime, was very brief, only a few days. 
And the newspaper would picture her despair, and the 
instantaneous reversal of her life, when her only son 
passed away. It was just that morning. The neigh- 
bors had rushed in with their loudly wailed sympathy. 



92 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

The whole of the little hill town was moved to pity. The 
newspaper would describe the sad funeral procession: 
the open bier with its bearers; the mother following after, 
bowed almost to the earth in her distress; the neighbors 
and friends at a respectful distance, all on foot, and all 
uttering shrill outcries of woe. It was a pitiful proces- 
sion, crawling down the narrow, steep road to the ceme- 
tery. 

But at this point the newspaper record would change 
its tone. What is this joyous company that appears in 
view, blocking the path, crowding around one central and 
commanding figure ? They are on their way to Nain, 
and it will be troublesome for the two companies to pass. 
Also, their aspect is most incongruous, for an eager joy 
and a radiant peace rest upon every face. 

The two groups are about to pass, the bearers of the 
bier crowding to one side and the ascending throng crowd- 
ing to the other. But what is this ? The majestic leader, 
the mysterious stranger, with an authoritative gesture 
commands the bearers to stop and to lower the bier. " I 
was indignant/ 7 said one of them, Benjamin Bar-Joseph, 
to the reporter, " and I was going to remonstrate ; but 
something about the man made me obey him. What if I 
had not ! " 

I do not think the reporter would make much of a de- 
scription of the climax. Reporters are better at prelim- 
inaries and at reminiscences — the very matters the Bible 
omits. The newspaper would cut but a poor figure in 
reciting the electric words of life, and portraying the re- 
turning flush, the softening figure beneath the shroud, the 



THE TEACHER'S IMAGINATION 93 

opening eyes, the slow first utterance, and above all the 
mother's transport of amazement and delight. 

But when he came to the after narrative, the reporter 
would shine again. He would interview the young man, 
and garner what confused impressions remained of his 
brief hours with death and his summons to renewed ex- 
istence. " I seemed to hear a voice, far away but won- 
derfully clear and sweet, calling me back to the body I had 
abandoned." That might be one of the fragments from 
the reporter's notebook. Thus the mother would be in- 
terviewed, and the principal spectators, including the 
ruler of the synagogue and the village doctor. There 
would also be comments from the Master's own party. 
Peter would tell of the healing of his mother-in-law, and 
would describe in rapid phrases the other deeds of the 
Wonder-worker. The newspaper's paragrapher would hit 
off the event with a pregnant sentence in his department, 
and some editorial writer would discuss in learned phrase 
its bearing upon modern psychology. 

In all, at least four columns would be given to the 
marvel, at least four thousand words. Luke's account 
contains seven verses, one hundred and sixty-five words! 

This is why the Bible-teacher must be imaginative. 
Scene after scene that has stirred the hearts of mankind 
for all these centuries is thus cramped into quarters un- 
believedly small. Four sentences describe Pentecost. 
The parable of the lost sheep, with its interpretation and 
application, is comprised in four sentences. The longest 
of the three accounts of the transfiguration occupies only 
nine verses. The wonderful conversation in which Christ 



94 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

restores to Peter, by the Sea of Galilee, his commission 
to feed the sheep and the lambs, is only fonr verses long. 
We have in the Bible only the skeleton of events, the 
barest outline of characters, but an outline so vital that 
it clothes itself, under the brooding of the consecrated 
imagination, with veritable flesh and blood. 

Nothing can take the place of this brooding, if we are 
to understand the Bible. As well expect to become ac- 
quainted with a man from a chart of his bodily measure- 
ments, as think to enter into the meaning of one of these 
Bible incidents by noting merely what is set down in the 
text. 

Suppose, for example, you are reading the account of 
the healing of the paralytic let down through the roof. 
Matthew gives you one verse ; Mark, five ; and Luke, four. 
Nothing is said about the sick man's feelings when he 
found the crowd so great that he could not reach the 
Healer. Disappointed \ Terribly, of course. Someone 
must have proposed going up on the roof. Was it one of 
the bearers \ I think it was a woman's ready and de- 
termined love. I think his mother was there, or his sis- 
ter, or his wife ! Nothing is said of the difficulty of car- 
rying the paralytic up the narrow and steep outside stairs. 
It must have been a tug. And the poor man must have 
stifled many a groan. 

Then they looked over the edge of the porch roof, down 
into the crowd. But Jesus was not there. On the con- 
trary, every face was turned eagerly inward. They could 
hear the clear and steady tones of the Master's voice, and 
it sounded immediately below them. 

I think that a woman stepped in here also. I think it 



THE TEACHER'S IMAGINATION 95 

was she who saw a tile loose, and pulled it up. I can see 
her, with her finger on her lips, pointing eagerly down. 
She pulls one of the bearers to her, and shows him Jesus 
immediately below. The sick man has his eyes shut. A 
deadly pallor has come over his face, though he lies in 
the hot sun. The woman gives an anguished glance at 
her beloved one, and begins to tear at the roof like one 
insane. Two of the bearers help her. The other two 
expostulate. It was the house of Simeon Bar-Isaac. And 
what would Simeon say? And they were disturbing the 
meeting down below. Secretly they said to one another, 
glancing at the sick man, ■" He's as good as dead already ; 
what's the use ? " 

But in the meantime how was it beneath them, in the 
courtyard and under the porch roof ? Well, at first they 
would not notice what was going on above, they were so 
interested in the Master's fascinating stories and burning 
words. Then, as the patch of light appears above, with a 
woman's face in it, and next a man's, several would be 
caught by the sight, and some eyes would be turned up- 
ward. Watch that impetuous young John, close to the 
Teacher, drinking in every word. His brow contracts. 
He is impatient at any threat of an interruption or hin- 
drance. 

But suddenly there is an immense racket immediately 
over the Master's head. The light square widens rapidly. 
Pieces of dirt come tumbling down. A bit of tiling clat- 
ters to the floor. The air is full of dust, and people be- 
gin to sneeze. Some of the dirt falls on the Master and 
He stops His talk, looking up inquiringly. " Quit that, 
you up there ! " shouts Peter. " Hey, there, what are 



96 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

you about % " screams Simeon Bar-Isaac, pushing his way 
into the court to get a view of the trespassers. 

Ah ! what is this ? The square of light, now become 
wide enough, is filled with a sagging bundle, which is rap- 
idly lowered, a broad cloth being held at the four cor- 
ners. A voice is heard from above : " It's Jacob, the 
paralytic. Take him, you below there. For the love of 
God ! " From the bed, doubled up, protrudes the head 
of a man. The eyes are shut. He has fainted away, or 
he is already dead. 

Peter, all his anger gone, leaps to grasp the unwieldy 
bundle — unwieldy, but sadly light. Judas Iscariot turns 
away with a sneer. John and Philip spring to help Peter. 
They lay the bed, without a word, at the feet of the great 
Physician. A flood of light pours from the jagged hole 
in the roof upon the pallid face and the wasted, twisted 
form. 

The crowd presses closer, hushed and expectant, all 
eyes on the Master. Had not they all heard of the leper 
near by, his flesh made whole again at a mysterious word ? 
Had they not heard of the sick boy of their own town, 
healed by some wonderful power that traveled through 
the air? Had they not heard of Peter's wife's mother, 
their own neighbor, brought back from death's door ? She 
was in that very crowd, probably, with the nobleman's 
son. And now — what will Jesus do % 

Well, we know what Jesus did. The Bible tells us. 
I have only been imagining the preliminaries, which the 
Bible does not tell us ; but these things, all of them, must 
have taken place just about as I have supposed them. 

Then, many things must have taken place after the 



THE TEACHER'S IMAGINATION 97 

miracle; things the Bible does not tell us, but they are 
just as certain as if recorded in its pages. One thing, very 
likely, is that Judas hunted up Simeon Bar-Isaac, to as- 
sure him that none of the disciples had been fool enough 
to break up his roof. Another thing is the amazement 
of the throng as that well-known paralytic took up his 
mattress and walked off stoutly, with it rolled up under 
his arm. Did not Thomas accompany him part way, to 
get from his own lips a statement of how long he had been 
sick, and to make quite sure that he had been a paralytic ? 
I think so. And as he neared his home, I think that, in 
pure joy of his new powers, he broke into a run. His 
children saw him coming, and could hardly believe their 
eyes. " Father ! " they cried. " It's father ! Run- 
ning!" And they ran to meet him. " Are you sure 
you ought not to lie down a little, dear ? " his wife asked, 
anxiously. " ~No more bed for me in the daytime," he 
answered proudly. And I think he added, " Just as soon 
as the crowd gets away from Simeon's, I'm going around 
there to mend his roof ! " 

I have given these illustrations at length because in this 
subject we are more helped by illustrations than by pre- 
cepts. But the fundamental idea is to think into sl Bible 
scene all you can fairly think into it. Locate it, first. 
Get its place on the map. From books on Palestine, 
books of travel, George Adams Smith's "Historical Ge- 
ography/' and the like, learn what the place looked like. 
Were any mountains in sight? Was any river? About 
how wide was the street? Of what material was the 
house made ? What was growing in the fields ? Might 
a bird have been singing near by ? What kind of bird ? 



98 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

Was the sun shining, likely ? How hot was it, probably ? 

Then, having put into the surroundings all you can 
(but your reading will continually paint in more), turn 
to the people. Who were there ? Were the Twelve ? 
If so, what did Peter probably do and say ? and Judas ? 
and John ? Who else may have been there ? And what 
were their emotions ? And what came before the bit that 
is recorded ? And what came after it ? 

As we go on, using our imaginations thus, they will 
lead us to see how little we really know, and will con- 
stantly urge us to fresh studies. For we are not to read 
our modern conditions into those ancient records ; that 
would be comparatively easy. But we are constantly to 
suspect that their ways were different from ours. We are 
not to follow Da Vinci in placing the Last Supper at 
a high table with chairs. We are not to fancy that 
Elishama's " penknife " had a back and blades with 
spring joints. We are not to imagine the food that Jo- 
seph carried to his brothers in Shechem to have been 
wrapped in tissue paper. We can be sure that the funda- 
mental human emotions then were the same as now. 
Everything else — the nonessentials — we can guess to 
have been quite unlike our present arrangements. 

Therefore the student who will exercise his imagina- 
tion upon the Bible will be an ardent student of the 
great Bible dictionaries, the volumes on Bible antiquities, 
and the descriptions by modern travelers of this land 
where for ages the customs remain unchanged. He will 
pore over his Geikie and Edersheim and Farrar. He 
will delight in stories of Bible times, like Ingraham's 
trilogy, Mrs. Phelps-Ward's "Come Forth" and " The 



THE TEACHER'S IMAGINATION 99 

Master of the Magicians," Lew Wallace's " Ben Hur." 
He will see these great scenes through the eyes of the 
poets, in such interpretations as Browning's " Saul " and 
"An Epistle of Karshish," Charles Wells's "Joseph," 
Taylor's " Elijah," Wilkinson's " Paul," Milton's " Sam- 
son Agonistes " and " Paradise Eegained," Longfellow's 
"Christus," Byron's "Cain," and Arnold's "Light of 
the World." He will need all the help he can get, for 
this reconstruction of the past is not an easy matter. 

Perhaps, after all, his best help will be the children. 
They will understand him, here, though the Dry-as-Dusts 
shake their heads. Their unspoiled imaginations will 
leap ahead of his, and will return with spoil of many 
treasures. You will need only to show them how to 
think out these matters, and after they have caught the 
knack of it you can assign to them any scene you please, 
and they will return it to you gloriously and wisely en- 
larged. 

I have already hinted at the teacher's application of 
this imaginative faculty, once it is developed, to the dis- 
covery of his scholars' real lives, enabling him in some 
true fashion to put himself in their places, hearing with 
their unskilled ears, entering into their often confused 
minds, and comprehending from the inside their fears, 
their temptations, their sorrows, their ambitions, and their 

joys- ^ 

This same imaginative faculty, as it is developed and 
directed in the scholars, will do as much for them as for 
the teacher. It will teach them also to put themselves 
in the place of others. It will give them not merely a 
better understanding of the past, but a finer grasp of the 



100 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

present. In short, it will teach them the lesson which is 
the ultimate wisdom inherent in all works of a noble 
imagination — ■ the great and priceless lesson of sympathy. 
And that will be grandly worth while. 



XIX 

TEST YOUR WORK 

Sunday-school teachers can know very little about the 
real results of their work without giving written examina- 
tions. I do not believe there is a teacher on earth, how- 
ever thorough and inspiring his work, who would not 
be greatly surprised and sorely chagrined when his schol- 
ars took their first written test or examination. 

It is so easy to ask leading questions, and so hard to 
realize how little real information they disclose. So much 
depends upon the tone and inflection of the questioner's 
voice. So much is picked up by the scholar from what 
other scholars say, and from the whole context of the 
recitation. It is quite impossible to be sure that a pupil 
actually knows a fact until some fair question, isolated 
and unexpected, has elicited the correct written reply. 
Then the teacher may be certain that he has driven one 
nail in that scholar's memory, and clinched it. 

A written is better than even the strictest oral exam- 
ination, because it reveals so much more. Confusions as 
to meaning of words, for instance, are easily slurred over 
in speech and hidden in slovenly pronunciation; but they 
are unmistakable when set down in black and white. 
For example, in answer to my question calling for a list 
of Christ's three resurrection miracles one scholar wrote: 

" The daughter of the Irish woman," meaning Jairus' 

101 



102 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

daughter. Another, intending to refer to the son of the 
widow of Nain, and with a mind reminiscent of the Cana 
miracle, wrote " the Widow Cain." Many others, in 
quoting Christ's first recorded words, " Wist ye not that 
I must be about my Father's business ? " wrote it, " I 
wished not," etc. One scholar, quoting, " Thy sins are 
forgiven," etc., put it, " Thy sins are forgiving." I could 
fill this page with illustrations of similar misconceptions, 
very natural on the part of these groping young minds, 
very easily corrected when perceived, but only to be per- 
ceived by a written examination. 

Spelling is an important matter, if our pupils are to 
have an accurate knowledge of the Bible. It is idle to ex- 
pect the secular schools to teach the spelling of Bible 
names. When, as in a recent examination, a boy spells 
Jerusalem " Juslem," the teacher has a broad hint to look 
after the lad's pronunciation. When Lazarus is written 
" Lazareth," a confusion with ISTazareth must be straight- 
ened out. When the pupil writes about the " cuering 
of the leopard," there is evidence that the disease of 
leprosy needs explaining. Careful spelling is so closely 
allied to careful thinking that it deserves the particular 
attention of Sunday-school teachers, and that attention 
can be given only through written examinations. 

The secular schools have two points of distinct advan- 
tage which the Sunday schools should everywhere thor- 
oughly adopt ■ — their system of grading, and their ex- 
aminations. Whatever may be said about the former, 
certainly the latter may readily be taken over, and in so 
doing we should at once increase the respect of the world 
for Sunday-school teaching. !N"o secular education, from 



TEST YOUR. WORK 103 

primary school to university, proceeds far -without an 
examination — a genuine test of knowledge, however that 
test may be disguised. Everywhere in true education 
it is recognized that the proof that a matter has really 
been taught is that the pupil is able to tell it back again. 
Secular teachers are often as much surprised as Sunday- 
school teachers would be, to discover how little they have 
actually succeeded in teaching; but they know that the 
only possibility of better teaching and better learning 
is through precisely that discovery, unpleasant as it al- 
ways is. 

The Sunday-school teachers are not excelled by any 
in their consecration, their zeal, their unselfish devotion 
to their calling. How long would any secular school 
exist if its teachers were not paid ? What is now needed 
is only that Sunday-school teachers should add to their 
other excellencies that of thoroughness, and they may 
lead the educational world. Practically all criticisms 
upon the Sunday school are based upon the alleged slip- 
shod character of our work. We need to show that it is 
not slipshod, and in no way can we prove this so well as 
by examinations. As soon as our Sunday-school work 
takes on this definite, progressive character, it will be 
honored as its heroism merits. 

Still one more consideration in favor of examinations 
remains to be urged, namely, that the great desideratum 
of systematic grading, already mentioned, depends largely 
upon regular and thorough tests. In no other way can 
we learn the true state of the school in all its parts, and 
separate the scholars into workable divisions by means 
whose justice they must all admit. This grading, which 



104 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

is so positive a stimulus to Bible study, is made possible 
by examinations. 

And now, passing from the why of examinations, a few 
words about the how. 

The first essential of a stimulating and just examina- 
tion is that the questions shall be clear and fair. Each 
should be so stated as to lead to only one possible correct 
answer. For example, a very poor question is this: 
" What did Jesus say that should lead us to be brave ? " 
— for He said too many things ; no one particular utter- 
ance is in any way indicated. But this question, along 
the same line, could be fairly put : " What promise of 
his continual presence did Christ make to His disciples ? " 

In the second place, these questions should be so framed 
that their answers, while full, may yet be very brief. 
Questions calling for one-word or two-word answers are 
best, when they are possible. This is because they take 
so little time from the scanty recitation period; the test 
may be over in a flash. Moreover, they allow some time 
for thought on the part of the scholar; and, on the part 
of the teacher, the papers are very quickly corrected. It 
is worth while, therefore, to take much pains in writing 
these questions. 

Every teacher should write his own questions, even 
though, in starting the examinations, general sets of ques- 
tions may be prepared for the entire school — or at least 
for the intermediate department. Each teacher knows 
what he has been trying to teach, and the expressions he 
will employ are more familiar to his scholars than would 
be those of a stranger. 

The questions should be dictated to the class, and all 



TEST YOUR WORK 105 

will write the answer of each, question (if they can!) 
before the next is dictated. The teacher's manner in do- 
ing this will determine the success of the plan. If he 
is confident and jolly, the examination will be accepted as 
good fun; if he is stern and anxious, it will be dreaded 
and avoided, and the nervous scholars will not tell half 
they know. 

Therefore the teacher should not (in my judgment) 
grade these papers ; or, if they are given a percentage, the 
record should be kept in private by the teacher. The 
purpose of the test is not promotion. The purpose is 
educative. It is to show the teacher what he has taught, 
and the scholars what they have learned, in order that 
they may go on, in partnership, to teach and learn some- 
thing else. If the scholars are interested to grade their 
own papers and keep their own records, that will be fine, 
and will mark the highest success of the examinations. 

Bearing in mind the educative value of these tests, the 
teacher will prevent cheating as strictly as any secular 
teacher. Examinations afford many opportunities for 
practical insistence upon the very qualities about which you 
have been talking in your Bible teaching — truthfulness, 
persistence, courage, and so on. Make the examinations 
genuine tests. Do not, usually, tell the scholars when 
they are coming. Do not allow the use of Bible or quar- 
terly. Do not answer the scholars' questions as to spelling 
and the like. Do not permit them to whisper, or to copy 
from one another. If you want your work respected, 
you must teach the scholars to be self-respecting. 

As to the frequency of these examinations, I should 
hold them, for a time at least, every week. That is not 



106 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

too often, if you grant what has been said about the ne- 
cessity of them as revelations of the real state of your 
scholars' knowledge. The ground covered will be the 
previous lesson, with occasional excursions farther back, 
and, on review days, surveying the entire quarter, at least. 
Indeed, the review exercises may largely consist of an 
extended examination. This plan will give to your re- 
view days an interest and significance which they have 
probably never had before. 

Examinations being thus frequent, tbey will not be bug- 
bears. Your scholars will learn to reel them off in ex- 
pert fashion. You will have a chance to repeat over and 
over the questions on which the class has stumbled, until 
their knowledge has become sure and ready. A ques- 
tion on which the scholars have failed should always come 
up in later tests. 

Finally, let us consider the results of these examina- 
tions. 

Do not be afraid of the issue. The tests may seem 
at first to show a woeful ignorance in your scholars, and 
the discouraged teacher may conclude that he is a failure. 
Much allowance must be made, however, for the scholars' 
unfamiliarity with this mode of expression. The teacher 
must learn to distinguish between disguised knowledge 
— knowledge hidden behind grotesque spelling and awk- 
ward phrases — and real ignorance. 

If the Sunday-school teacher could see the public- 
school examination papers of his scholars, he would take 
comfort from them ! Learn to distinguish in your schol- 
ars' papers the errors due to faulty teaching in the 
public school, such as poor spelling, bad penmanship, and 



TEST YOUR WORK 107 

stiff English. Nevertheless, remember that it is the busi- 
ness of the Bible school to teach the spelling cf Bible 
names, and the clear expression of Bible facts and truths, 
and do not hide your duty behind the cloak of secular- 
school deficiencies. And do not seek lamely to excuse 
yourself and your scholars, and pretend that you have 
taught and they have learned what has been neither taught 
nor learned. There is no progress that way. Every 
teacher, in fact, has taught both more or less than he 
thinks: more to the life, probably, than he realizes, and 
less to the head. 

And do not allow the scholars, any more than your- 
self, to grow discouraged. Absurdly funny answers will 
be written. Do not quote them or make much of them. 
Though many answers are wrong, praise the scholars for 
the attempt. Always hand back the papers to the schol- 
ars, and go over the incorrect answers with them. In- 
spire the scholars with a sense of something real and 
definite to be accomplished by the examinations, some- 
thing gloriously worth while. 

Above all, perhaps, these tests will be of value in show- 
ing the teacher how important it is, in teaching as in all 
work, to set before one's self a clear-cut task, possible of 
accomplishment ; to accomplish it and make sure of it, and 
then to go on to another clear-cut task. We shall suc- 
ceed far better in our teaching if we do not vaguely try 
to teach so much, but aim each week to plant in our 
scholars' minds a single truth and two or three simple 
facts. Definite aims, moderate expectations, and persist- 
ent testing — these are three essentials of wise pedagogy. 

The subject I have treated in this essay is one very close 



108 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

to my heart, because I believe it to be vitally important 
for our Sunday schools. I hope that I have not exag- 
gerated or exalted the method above its proper place. Let 
me set down, therefore, as my final word, this warning: 
the examination is to be used as a tool; it must not be- 
come a fetish. 



XX 

THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE 

A man is doubly valuable if he can do things differ- 
ently from other people. Differently from himself! 

For variety is more than the spice of life; sometimes 
it comes very near to being its substance. You are likely 
to take walks if you have wit enough to plan walks in 
ever-varying directions, but your pedestrian zeal will flag 
if you plod continually over a familiar route. The fas- 
cination of new books will lure a boy on to read that might 
gain a permanent distaste for the art of arts if he were 
shut up to a single volume. In some families they have 
ordered Christmases, each member announcing what he 
would like (and confidently expects to receive) ; and in 
such families the spirit of Christmas and usually the ob- 
servance of it promptly die. 

Young folks value this element of surprise more than 
their elders; but all value it, perhaps more than they 
deign to acknowledge. Any one who would lead and 
teach others must create in them a pleasurable anticipa- 
tion. It is thus that the skillful captain holds the atten- 
tion of the squad he is putting through the manual of 
arms. It is thus the preacher holds his congregation, 
and the editor his subscribers, and the statesman his con- 
stituency. Leaders and teachers would soon lose their 
grip if they did not do new things, advance new plans 
and ideas, or present the old under novel guises. And it 

109 



110 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

is thus also with the Sunday-school teacher. Nothing 
is more speedily fatal to his success than plodding monot- 
ony. Pew elements will contribute more definitely and 
powerfully to it than the element of surprise. 

In creating this element of surprise it is necessary, for 
one thing, that the teacher himself enter into the fun 
with all his heart. I say " fun," because all earnest 
work reaches its climax of power over men's hearts when 
it is so enjoyed that one " would rather do it than play," 
when it becomes one's actual recreation. If the teacher 
expects others to enjoy his teaching, he must manifestly 
enjoy it. He must be bright-eyed, vivacious. He must 
entertain pleasurable anticipations of the coming lesson, 
and his scholars are quite sure to share in his enjoyment of 
the situation. 

Another necessity, if one would introduce the element 
of surprise, is that it be planned for, with long thought 
ahead. Surprises sometimes come impromptu, but not 
often. When they do, they are usually disagreeable ! 
The teacher that knows his business will devise his sur- 
prises, his enlivening novelties, for as many lessons in 
advance as his wit will carry him. And he will pru- 
dently set his notions down in black and white as soon as 
he conceives them. 

I am aware that this will seem formidable, but it is 
not so formidable as 4 it seems. One surprise a week is 
enough. Hoard your ideas for variety and freshness; 
they are precious and rare, as you may have discovered 
already. But a very little difference from the ordinary 
is enough to render a lesson noteworthy. If, for example, 
instead of asking questions orally, as usual, you write 



THE ELEMENT OE SURPRISE HI 

them in advance on slips of paper and let the scholars 
mysteriously draw them, yon will have their unflagging 
interest through the entire lesson, and a second surprise 
element would be foolish and wasteful. Often these slight 
variations from the customary manner are more strik- 
ing and useful than more elaborate surprises. 

The matter is made easier, too, when one realizes that 
it is not at all necessary to devise fifty-two different sur- 
prises in a year, and then fifty-two new ones the next 
year. A forgotten novelty is as good as a brand-new one. 
Watch children at their play. They continually tire of 
one game and turn to others, but they faithfully return 
to the abandoned games in a perpetual, loving round. 
So it will be with the wise teacher. If he finds — as 
he will — that the method of written questions arouses 
interest, he will not use it the following week, but he will 
add it to his repertoire of surprises, and trot it out in its 
turn, perhaps two months hence. He will place it, over 
and over, on the written schedule which I have sug- 
gested. 

No teacher should expect to concoct all these surprises, 
these different ways of doing things, in his own head. If 
he devises one new method a year, he is a rare pedagogical 
genius. No; he must keep open his eyes and ears. He 
must take the teachers' magazines. He must attend the 
Sunday-school conventions. He must read books on 
teaching methods. He must visit other classes and other 
schools now and then. And from all these sources he 
will constantly be adding to his store of surprises, and 
constantly diminishing the frequency with which any par- 
ticular surprise must appear upon his schedule. 



112 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

There are some elements of novelty which do not wear 
out their usefulness as soon as others, but may be used 
for several consecutive lessons. These are the practices 
which make most active demand upon the hands and 
brains of the scholars. For example, if they are build- 
ing up a paper-pulp map of Palestine, and getting in the 
process no end of information about the Holy Land, the 
fascinating work will furnish zest enough to carry you 
triumphantly through a month, or even two months, of 
lessons. Only, watch sharply for indications of weari- 
ness, and lay aside even the relief map, for the time, be- 
fore it has a chance to become an old and threadbare 
story. Few mottoes are more useful to a teacher than 
this : " There are other days to come." 

The teacher should not always plan these surprises by 
himself. A new plan is doubly effective if some scholar 
joins him in presenting it. Young people are almost al- 
ways more interested in one another's acts than in the 
deeds of their elders. Whenever, therefore, you can per- 
suade a scholar to do some conspicuously new thing, count 
safely on that for the surprise of the day. It may be a 
recitation of some finely appropriate poem, well com- 
mitted to memory. It may be the reading of an essay. 
It may be the exhibition of a carefully prepared map or 
of a large and skillfully made drawing of some Palestine 
landscape. Whatever it is, though it be crude and hes- 
itant, it will surprisingly interest and stimulate the class. 

Sometimes an outsider may be introduced, bringing 
with him the surprise element. He may give a little 
talk on the lesson, which will hold attention by its novelty 
when a like monologue from the teacher would be a 



THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE 113 

stupid blunder. He may question the class. He may 
exhibit some object brought from the Holy Land, or tell 
of his visit to the place under discussion. I do not think 
that many Sunday-school teachers make wise use of this 
inspiring element — the fresh faces and voices of out- 
siders. 

Lessons should be introduced in different ways. A 
monotonous beginning sets the keynote of monotony for 
the whole hour. Start sometimes with a sharp question; 
again, with a bright anecdote ; again, with a striking quo- 
tation ; again, with a poem beautifully recited ; again, 
with an abrupt exclamation. No minute of the lesson re- 
pays thoughtful and ingenious planning better than the 
first minute. 

The minute next in importance is the last minute. 
Your use of it determines the impression the entire lesson 
is to leave behind. If you let it fray out into a confused 
gathering of papers and wraps and a bustling for pennies, 
you may have driven a nail, but you have not clinched 
it. This close should be planned in advance, with a care- 
ful thought for variety. Now you may show the class 
an impressive picture illustrating the lesson, carefully re- 
served for that time. Now you may repeat a bit of 
verse that gathers up the teachings of the hour. Now 
you may ask that all heads be bowed while you offer a 
prayer that God will help them carry out in their lives 
the lesson teachings. And now you may give each a 
sealed letter, not to be opened till they reach home, ten- 
derly urging upon them the love of the Saviour. Ah, it 
pays to plan for that last precious minute ! 

And into all that comes between the first minute and 



114 SUXD AY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

the last you may work the element of surprise. Eor ex- 
ample, if you have brought some illustrative object, such 
as the model of an ancient lamp, do not set it baldly on 
the table, but bring it in mysterious wrappings, not to be 
removed till the proper time. If you have a picture to 
show, keep it strictly face downward until you are ready 
to introduce it. If you have a map or a drawing or a 
diagram upon the class blackboard, pin a paper over it at 
the start. You may even pin over it a series of papers, 
so that the design, whatever it is, may be progressively 
uncovered as the lesson proceeds. 

Every phase of teaching offers a chance for variety. 
Is it the questions ? They may be oral or written. They 
may be placed on the blackboard or on slips of paper. 
The scholars may prepare and ask the questions. One 
scholar may question the class. The class may divide 
into sides and have a question tournament. The ques- 
tions in the quarterly may be used. The game of 
twenty questions may be adapted. There may be a 
question-box or an answer-box. The class may take their 
turn and question the teacher. Questions may be drawn 
by lot. A reward may be offered for the best set of ques- 
tions brought in by a scholar. Almost endless changes 
may be rung on this one element of questioning. 

Is it the scope of the lesson ? Now it may be made 
chiefly historical, now literary, now evangelistic, now the 
study of customs may be prominent, now textual study, 
now a comparison with other parts of the Bible. 

Is it the review of events intervening between the last 
lesson and the present one ? Now you may do this by the 
report of one scholar assigned to the task, now by an essay 



THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE 115 

prepared by a scholar, now by a Bible reading, now by 
a reading from some history of Bible times, now by a 
combination of scholars each telling a portion, now by 
questioning, now by a diagram. 

Is it the application of the lesson to daily life ? You 
may do it by the letters already suggested, or the prayer. 
You may do it by an anecdote from the stores of biogra- 
phy, or by the recital of your own experience or of your 
scholars'. They may be asked to do it, in a great va- 
riety of ways. 

Is it Bible geography ? You have the possibility of 
map-drawing, of memory maps, of outline maps to be 
filled in, of sand maps, putty maps, pulp maps, of color 
work, of stereoscopes, of travel clubs. 

Is it the comparison with other parts of the Bible ? 
You may have a class committee on the matter. You may 
vote on the best parallels brought in. You may study 
Bible-marking. You may plan a system of memory 
verses. The scholars may make their own Bible indexes. 

Is it the review? You may have a map review, an 
essay review, a picture review, a chart review, a character 
review, an examination review — in short, a review based 
upon almost any of the endlessly varied methods you 
have used during the quarter, any one of which, being- 
applied to the entire series of lessons, will at once attain 
a novelty quite sufficient for your purpose. 

And finally, let me make the most important sugges- 
tion of all. There is an element of surprise in the 
Bible itself, as well as in the way in which it is pre- 
sented. This is the crowning interest. To arouse it is 
the goal of all the methods I have described. When it 



116 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

is roused in each of your scholars, this anxious thought 
for method becomes at once and forever unnecessary. 
The scholar has made the great discovery of Bible wealth, 
and eagerly brings for himself out of that treasury things 
ever new. Thenceforth, every time he goes to the mar- 
velous volume he is seized by a fresh fascination, and 
surprised by a new illustration of its unending wisdom 
and power. 



XXI 

LESSON NOTE-BOOKS 

Everywhere in education note-books, well used, are of 
the greatest value. College and professional schools could 
hardly manage without them, and high schools and even 
grammar and primary schools are learning their value. 
What the teacher says is far more likely to be remem- 
bered if hand joins ear and brain in capturing it and 
in recording it. Note-books, of course, can never take 
the place of memory; but they are memory's indispen- 
sable aids. And nowadays we have so many things to 
remember that we do fairly well if, regarding a large num- 
ber of facts, we merely remember where we have set them 
down, and can turn to them at our pleasure for future 
use. 

Now, in this particular, as in nearly all others, the 
Sunday-school teacher will do well to avail himself of the 
experience of the secular school. Not that our Sunday- 
school teaching is to be by lectures; far from that. The 
haranguing teacher is a failure. The wisely questioning 
and brightly conversing teacher is quite certain to be a 
success. But the better the teaching, the larger part are 
note-books likely to play in it. 

Note-books have a double use — for the teacher and 

the scholar. Let us look at the teacher's use of them. 

In the first place, as to the book itself, it will have at 

117 



118 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ECS2NTIAL3 

least fifty-two pages, one for each lessen cf tlie year. It 
should have extra pages, for a list of scholars and many 
incidental memoranda, but our chief concern is with the 
pages for the lessons. 

Head each page with the title of the lesson and the 
Scripture reference; and, I am old-fashioned enough to 
add, with the Golden Text, cr at least wkh some wisely 
chosen Bible key-verse. 

You will plan your teaching far ahead, using these 
blank pages. For instance, take the matter of practical 
helpfulness to each of your scholars. You have noticed 
slothfulness in Edith, and want to spur her out of it. 
You look ahead. Ah! here, on May 13, is just the lesson 
she needs. You note on that page : " Energy and in- 
dustry — (Edith)." In the same way you go through 
your class, fitting the needs and the lesson teachings. 
!Not that you will forget Edith till May 13 comes, nor that 
on May 13 you will say a word in the class about Edith's 
failing. But it is a great advantage in teaching, as you 
will discover, to take special thought for a certain scholar 
in the teaching of each lesson, and in planning for it and 
praying for it beforehand. This can hardly be accom- 
plished without some such note-book arranging as I have 
described. 

Again, you will use your lesson note-book for that 
comprehensive forward look over the lessons which quite 
doubles their value. The first question regarding each 
lesson is, " What shall I emphasize ? What truth, among 
the many truths suggested here, shall I cause to stand out 
in the scholars' apprehension and memory ? " On the 
wise selection of these central truths, and the forcible in- 



LESSON NOTE-BOOKS 119 

sistence upon them, depends very largely the teacher's 
success. You wid need to look far ahead, that the truths 
you choose for emphasis may have relation to one another, 
may not duplicate one another, but be cumulative. This, 
rgain, is hardly to be brought about except by the use of 
a note-book. 

Once more, consider the matter of illustrations. Your 
lesson note-book will keep steadily in view the topics of 
your teaching far ahead. If you are a wise teacher you 
are always en the lookout for teaching material. Every 
walk through the woods gives you a parable. Every copy 
of a newspaper gives you an illuminating incideut from 
current history. Every book brings you a fine anecdote 
or appealing thought. Every day your observation of 
the men and women around you is rich in illustrative 
material. Much of this is entirely unsuited to the im- 
mediate Sunday-school lessens, and will be altogether lost 
unless you have this storehouse in which to garner it, 
placing parable, current event, passage from book or from 
life, just where it will be most useful, though on a page 
ten months hence. 

As you read your Bible, the lesson note-book will be 
constantly by your side. Every true teacher knows that 
the Bible is its own best interpreter. Not a passage you 
will read but has its bearing on some of the lessons to 
come. It may not relate to next Sunday's lesson, but 
to the lesson five months distant. Very well; note it on 
the proper page, and you have won the strongest ally for 
the teaching of that lesson when you come to it. 

The note-book should be small enough to carry with 
you — to fit into your vest pocket, if you are a man. ; 



120 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

and, if you are a woman, into any apology for a pocket 
you are lucky enough, to have. Carry with it the part 
of the Bible you study during the year — at least, as far 
ahead as your pocket allows, madam. For this purpose 
I strongly recommend every teacher to sacrifice one Bible, 
cutting it apart and taking from time to time just the se- 
lections that are under immediate consideration. Of 
course, the books are published separately, but they are 
more bulky in that form. 

The chief value of the lesson note-books to the teacher 
will be in the cultivation of the habit of thinking ahead 
over the lessons to come. Until you have tried it, you 
have no idea how this longer consideration enriches the 
lesson with many helpful thoughts and practical illustra- 
tions, how it clarifies its teachings, how it adds force and 
confidence to your work, and how it binds the lessons to- 
gether, week to week and month to month. Faithfully 
use your note-books, and you will come to regard them as 
your chief pedagogical aid. 

And now let us see how the note-book helps the scholar. 

The scholar's note-book, especially at the start, should 
be only large enough to contain notes on a quarter's les- 
sons, and then a fresh start with a new book. Sixteen 
pages is right, and the teacher may have the class meet 
and spend a pleasant hour making their own note-books, 
supplying the headings, and ornamenting the covers. 

Many incidental gains will come from the use of these 
note-books, not the least being the drill in neatness and 
accuracy which the teacher may give by means of them. 
Inspire a pride in keeping them. Have an exhibition 
of them once a year, as part of the definite results which 



LESSON NOTE-BOOKS 121 

the school will be able to show to the church. The 
scholars will put themselves into their note-books, and 
the teacher will not only discern their character more 
clearly himself, but be able also to point it out to the 
scholar, for his correction of faults and increase of excel- 
lencies. 

But, after all, the chief gain from the note-books is 
their aid to memory. The teacher will indicate very 
plainly, especially at first, just what he wants the scholars 
to record in their note-books. He will take pains to have 
something, perhaps many things, for their note-books at 
each lesson, so as to get them into the habit of bringing 
the books. The teacher, too, will take frequent occasion 
to refer to former entries in the note-books, and will set 
the scholars to consulting them. 

It may be best, until the scholars have become expert 
at note-taking, to have them make rough notes in pencil, 
which they will carefully copy into their books at home, 
using ink. Thus the impression on the memory will be 
deepened by repetition. Whatever course is taken, the 
teacher should read over his scholars' note-books at least 
once a month, to correct errors in spelling and statement, 
and to reform any carelessness and untidiness. 

What is to be written in the note-books? Of course, 
I can only indicate some of the uses to be made of them. 
The teacher will continually devise new ones. 

The books will contain lists that the scholars are to 
learn — any series of facts, such as the order of the kings 
of Israel, the leading facts in Elijah's life, any set of 
dates, any collection of Bible texts, any cross references. 
If the teacher wishes a particular amount or kind of 



122 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

work to be done during the week to come, his request will 
be set down in the note-books. If the lesson just taught 
included any truth which the teacher wishes especially 
to emphasize, he will impress it by requiring it to be put 
into the note-books. 

Sometimes the note-books will be utilized for material 
regarding the life of the hero you are studying — ma- 
terial that can be incorporated in a little biography 
which each scholar is writing. Sometimes they will be 
preparing a brief history of the period you are studying, 
and the note-books will provide matter for it. Some- 
times the note-books will preserve interesting geographical 
data, or facts about Oriental customs, or explanations of 
unusual and obscure phrases. 

Sketch maps, copied from the teacher's, will find place 
in the note-books. Eoutes will be plotted upon these. 
All sorts of diagrams will be recorded. Data for charts 
will be given, which the scholar is to put into shape at 
home. Drawings will be copied, showing, for instance, 
the shape of an Eastern cruse or an Oriental lamp. 

Indeed, there is hardly any division of pedagogic art 
which will npt be glad of the note-book's assistance. The 
teacher that once introduces this simple aid will wonder 
how he managed without it. The indefinite will become 
definite, and the evanescent will be rendered permanent. 
It is one of the littles that make great. 



XXII 

PEDAGOGICAL RUTS 

In a way, the Sunday-school teacher's work is mo- 
notonous. He must meet about the same set of scholars 
in the same place, at the same time, and his lessons are al- 
ways from the same book. To a poor teacher this be- 
comes wearisome ; and, after plodding for a while through 
the routine, he gives up the work in disgust. But a good 
teacher finds endless and fascinating variety. The spice 
of life furnishes constant incentive for his labors. Noth- 
ing in his work is stale or flat, and so nothing is unprofita- 
ble. Each lesson is a fresh road, whose windings present 
novel delights at every turn. 

" Getting into ruts," — that is a prime peril of peda- 
gogy. The wagon drags. The wheels are up to the hubs. 
It is poke, poke, poke, and it is creak, creak, creak. The 
driver is lucky if a wheel is not wrenched off or an axle 
broken. To get out of ruts if one is in them, or keep out 
of ruts if one has thus far avoided them, is one of the 
first desires of any teacher that knows his business. 

One of the pedagogical ruts is the use, year after year, 
of the same lesson helps. It is astonishing how few 
teachers possess any reference library whatever, while 
still fewer make it a rule to add at least one new book 
to their collection with each new quarter — some book 
most likely to give information and inspiration for the 

123 



124 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

quarter's teaching. With the new book come new views, 
broader views. These lead to new methods. The teacher 
is quickened, the scholars are quickened. It is a wise su- 
perintendent that recommends such a book to his teachers 
every quarter, learns its price, and obtains so many orders 
for it that he can get it at reduced cost. That will lift his 
school out of one pedagogical rut. 

Another rut for a teacher to avoid is sameness of prep- 
aration for his teaching. Thousands of teachers merely 
read the lesson text and no other Scripture, and then 
hastily scan what their quarterly has to say about it ; that 
is all. Sameness in preparation, however full the prepa- 
ration may be, leads to sameness of presentation. Though 
the teacher's preparation be theoretically the best, there 
is a better; and that is, occasionally, something different. 
This week let him merely read the portion of the Bible 
involved in the lesson, and then go off and think it over, 
through the days before his teaching. At another time 
let him make it a point to talk it over, with as many as he 
can persuade to discuss the lesson with him. Still an- 
other week, let him carefully write out a lesson scheme, 
with all the questions, facts, illustrations, and applications. 
Persistent variations in the mode of preparation will cer- 
tainly lead to freshness of treatment in the class, and one 
more rut will be overcome. 

Starting to teach always in the same way — ah, that 
is a serious pedagogical rut! It brands the lesson with 
dull uniformity at the very outset. " What was the subject 
of our last lesson, children ? And what is the subject 
of this lesson ? " It is safe to say that thousands of 
teachers will begin next Sunday with this time-blunted 



PEDAGOGICAL RUTS 125 

formula. A wise teacher, on the contrary, if he makes 
sure of nothing else in his preparation, will devise for 
each lesson a brisk new beginning. Questions, startling 
statements, pictures, maps, anecdotes, essays, objects, dia- 
grams, charts • — each of these may be made in turn the 
basis of this introduction. Ingenuity will grow with ex- 
ercise, and soon it will happen that, whatever may befall 
the pedagogical carryall later in the teaching period, it 
will be certain to keep out of the ruts during the critical 
first five minutes. 

The question rut is another snare for the teacher. I 
mean the question cast in the same invariable form, such 
as, " What do you know about — " this or that ; or, " What 
does our lesson tell us about — " almost anything. I once 
had a teacher whose question formula, unchanged through 
the lesson hour and from day to day, was, " Is it, or is it 
not true, Wells, that — " and then would follow the fact to 
which he desired an obedient assent, which, of course, he 
always obtained. The teacher should study his questions 
with the most assiduous care, seeking force and clearness 
and variety. Writing out the questions in advance, until 
versatility is gained, is not taking too much pains. It 
is not without great painstaking that one can escape from 
this pedagogical rut. 

Perhaps the deepest and most mischievous rut into which 
a teacher can fall is sameness in his teaching methods. 
For how many teachers is this the lack-luster routine: 
" Johnny, you may read v. 21." " !Now, Johnny, what 
lesson do you draw from that verse ? " " Very good. 
Mary, you may read v. 22." " Now, Mary, what lesson 
do you draw from that verse ? " Perhaps the questions 



12 G SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

in the quarterly will be read, with the same inflection, 
and with proper pauses for the replies. If this descrip- 
tion applies to any teacher, let him reform, or expect the 
early demise of his class. There is imperative need of 
one novelty in teaching methods every Sunday; and one 
novelty is enough. It may be a map journey, or a ques- 
tion tournament carried on like a spelling-bee, or an essay 
by one of the scholars, or the scholars may take turns 
questioning, or some object illustrative of the lesson may 
be made in the class. The greater part of the lesson 
period may be spent in the accustomed way, but the intro- 
duction of one little innovation will suffice to lift it from 
the ruts; and this bit of enterprise will lead to improved 
methods throughout the teacher's work. 

Sameness of manner is another rut for the teacher to 
avoid. With some it is " the smile that won't come off." 
With others it is a dull, level voice. With others it is 
an impassive face. With still others it is a nervous jerki- 
ness intended for sprightliness, but sadly missing the 
mark. A teacher should see himself as his scholars see 
him. His manner should vary with his theme. The 
manner during the lesson on the Cana miracle is very 
different from the manner that befits the teaching of the 
great test on Mount Carmel. This variety of manner 
comes from absorption in the lesson story. If you get 
into its spirit it will shine out, a different manner for 
every different subject. 

A very important part of the teacher's work is setting 
the scholars to work at home ; and here also, if the teachers 
do anything at all, they are likely to do it monotonously. 
" Have you read over the lesson ? Have you studied your 



PEDAGOGICAL RUTS 127 

lesson ? Have you learned the Golden Text ? " These 
are quite certain to be the inquiries. Much ingenuity 
is needed to provide for the scholars definite tasks, varied 
with each lesson, and much tact is required to get the 
students to undertake those tasks ; but in no matter is the 
expenditure of ingenuity and tact more profitable. There 
are many ways of setting the scholars to work, as in asking 
them to write paraphrases of the lesson, or thirty-word 
condensations of it, or sets of questions for the teacher 
to use, or three-minute essays on assigned subjects. They 
may be persuaded to come to the teacher's home to 
study the lesson together. They may be told that some 
one of their number is to ask the questions next Sunday, 
and they are all to study so as to be able to do it. Indeed, 
a great variety of these methods of stimulating home study 
may be used. 

Sameness in review methods is another pedagogical rut. 
It usually consists chiefly of a spiritless calling of the list 
of lesson subjects, followed by " What do you remember 
of that lesson, Susy ? " Each review has a character of 
its own, as its lessons are different from those of other 
quarters; therefore it needs a different treatment. 
Sometimes you may review with a list of selected ques- 
tions, written on slips of paper, which the scholars will 
draw by lot. Sometimes each may be told to prepare to 
question the class on a certain lesson, and to answer ques- 
tions on all the lessons. Sometimes the teacher may pre- 
pare a set of topics, each of which requires a study of all 
the lessons, and may assign these to different scholars. 
Sometimes you may review by movable numbers on a 
map, each number standing for an event of the quarter 



128 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

which occurred there. These reviews may be indefinitely 
varied. 

A serious rut is sameness of scholars. Some teachers 
make no effort to increase the size of their classes. They 
plod along, year after year, with the same scholars as- 
signed to them at the beginning; and if some of them 
drop out, they sigh — ■ and have the j anitor put in one 
chair less. A teacher should always be reaching out for 
recruits. He will never have a large enough class. He 
will set his scholars to drawing in their friends. He will 
understand how delightfully even a single new scholar 
will help to lift his class out of the ruts. 

A monotonous relation to the scholars retards many 
teachers' labors. When their scholars are sick or have 
been absent from the school, they may visit them at their 
homes; otherwise they see them only at the class. Every 
teacher needs to put himself often in fresh relations with 
his scholars. Invite them to your house. Take pleasant 
walks with them. Go off with them on jolly excursions, 
to museums, Indian mounds, high hills. Write letters to 
them. Go camping with them. Play games with them. 
Pray with them. See all sides of their lives, and let them 
see all sides of your life. 

Then, there is a monotonous way of presenting Christ. 
What a sad rut is this for a teacher to fall into ! " Do 
you consider yourself a Christian ? " This is a stock 
question. Or it may be, " Don't you want to come out 
on the Lord's side ? " Or, " Don't you want to take a 
stand for Jesus ? " We need to think, with each lesson, 
how to use that lesson, easily and naturally, for inducing 
decisions for Christ, or for making Christ a more real 



PEDAGOGICAL RUTS 129 

influence in the lives of those that have formally entered 
His service. Let us do it in unhackneyed, unartificial 
ways, as if we were introducing a dear friend. ~No two 
scholars are to be approached in the same way, because 
no two scholars have the same needs and the same long- 
ings. Find out what each should get from Christ and 
give to Christ; then make your appeal along those lines, 
and you will be quite certain to succeed. 

A sameness of aim will hurt your teaching — merely 
the ambition to get through the whole lesson during the 
lesson period, or to hold the interest of your scholars. 
Your aim should vary continually with the continually 
varying needs of your class. Now it will be to bring a 
certain scholar to Christ ; again, to give the class a substan- 
tial outline knowledge of a certain subject; again, to cul- 
tivate in the scholars a certain grace or virtue. These 
definite but changing purposes will do wonders for the 
force and exhilaration of your teaching. 

And, finally, the teacher needs a variety of motives, if 
his work is to win the highest success. Too many teach- 
ers are moved merely by a dogged sense of duty, or by a 
dull and flabby hope of good results. Pray often, teach- 
ers ! Love ardently, teachers ! Seek the continual pres- 
ence of the Holy Spirit, bringing the things of Christ 
and showing them to you. With His help alone can you 
get out of the ruts and keep out of them. Let every 
valley — and that means every rut — be filled up, and 
let it become the highway of the Lord! 



XXIII 

HOW SOCEATES TAUGHT 

Jesus Christ is not only the Sunday-school teacher's 
main theme; He is his chief model for the difficult art 
of teaching. And next to the divine Teacher, we find our 
most helpful exemplars in other Bible characters, notably 
Paul and the Old Testament prophets. The Sunday- 
school teacher will never exhaust the pedagogic hints that 
are to be found in his Text-book. 

Though all this is true — and I, certainly, would yield 
to no man in emphasizing it — yet it would be foolish 
for us to neglect the great lessons in wise ways of teaching 
to be learned from teachers outside the Bible. One of 
the noblest of these instructors is the old Greek philoso- 
pher, Socrates — ■ a man so wise and so noble that some 
have not hesitated to compare him blasphemously with 
our Lord Himself. Every one that attempts to teach 
others, youths or adults, should be familiar with the ideas 
and methods of Socrates. What are some of these, and 
how will they help us to teach our modern boys and 
girls ? 

Well, in the first place, Socrates was absolutely sincere, 
simple, and unpretending. These are splendid qualities 
in a teacher. Strangers always found in him more than 
they expected. His talk was a constant surprise, even 
to Plato and Xenophon and his other intimates. Bare- 

130 



HOW SOCRATES TAUGHT 131 

footed, hatless, coatless, pale of face, flat of nose, pro- 
tuberant of stomach, Socrates was the reverse of showy. 
He began his conversations hesitatingly, apologetically. 
But before he had talked five minutes he had his crowd. 

If any of us are fussing over exteriors in this matter 
of teaching — if we think that fine garments or fine words 
or elegant manners are necessary to make an impression 
on our scholars, a little study of Socrates will set us right. 
The heart! The head! Love your scholars and teach 
them ! You need no other charm. 

The second feature in Socrates' way of teaching was 
his application of the same principle to others. Unpre- 
tending himself, he abhorred pretense in others. In his 
famous discussions with the scholars and philosophers of 
his day, his first step was almost invariably to convict 
them of ignorance. 

The oracle at Delphi had once declared that Sophocles 
was wise, Euripides wiser, but the wisest of all men was 
Socrates. Our humble philosopher was conscious of deep 
ignorance, as all wise men are; but he laughed off the 
oracle's statement by asserting that he was wiser than 
others only in this : that he knew his own ignorance, but 
others did not know theirs ! 

Socrates made many enemies by his merciless process 
of exposing the ignorance of men, and these enemies be- 
came numerous and powerful enough to procure his death. 
Perhaps he foresaw the result, but it would have made 
no difference if he did. Socrates had taken up the work 
of teaching, and he knew that he could not teach anything 
to any man if the man was sure that he knew it already. 

After the same fashion the modern teacher must clear 



132 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

the ground before him, removing from his scholars' minds 
all conceit of knowledge that is not possessed. " Where 
is Jerusalem 1 " Do not be satisfied with the easy answer, 
" In Palestine," unless you are sure that your scholars 
know where Palestine is, and what it is. " Point toward 
Jerusalem." " How would you go to Palestine from 
here ? " " How far would Palestine reach across our 
State ? " " Can you walk twenty miles a day ? How 
long would it take you to walk the length of Palestine ? " 
" How much of the eastern Mediterranean shore does it 
occupy ? " " To what empire does it belong % " " In 
which part of Palestine is Jerusalem % " Continue these 
questions and repeat them, until, with the help of the 
globe and maps, you are sure that Palestine and Jerusalem 
have real location to your scholar's apprehension. You 
will not go far in the process, with many scholars, without 
discovering much confusion, not to say blank ignorance, 
even on this fundamental point of Bible geography. 
Your scholars will not be pleased to perceive how little 
they know, nor you to perceive how little you have taught ; 
but there is no other way. 

Socrates was the real discoverer of the definition. He 
was the first to insist upon its value, if men are to think 
and speak accurately. How many misunderstandings 
would be avoided if in all our talking together on disputed 
points we were always to begin with definitions ! Agree- 
ment on those would usually show us that, after all, we 
think alike. But some of us urge that faith is the essen- 
tial, and not works, and others that works are essential, 
and not faith, while all the time each of us has different 



HOW SOCRATES TAUGHT 133 

definitions of works and faith, and we are not talking 
about the same things at all. 

For instance, if some one were to meet Socrates on one 
of our American streets, and casually ask him, " Do you 
think it right for the government to tax the selling of 
liquor ? " he would hardly get an immediate answer from 
the philosopher. At once Socrates would begin to probe 
for a definition. " What do you mean by a govern- 
ment ? " the sage would ask. " What are its purposes ? 
Who make it up ? Whence comes its power ? What do 
you mean by taxing ? What are the purposes of taxation ? 
Whence comes authority to tax ? What is temperance ? 
What is intemperance ? What promotes the first ? What 
causes the second ? " Socrates would not go near your 
main question until every one of these fundamentals had 
been thoroughly discussed, and some sort of answer agreed 
upon. Even then he would probably remain provokingly 
silent, and leave you to draw a just conclusion from the 
principles you had reached, which would not be at all 
difficult to do. 

!Now of course I do not intend to suggest the adoption 
of this method in Mo in your Sunday-school teaching, 
but the main idea is continually to be kept in view. Be 
sure that you and your scholars know what you are talk- 
ing about. Sin, salvation, repentance, forgiveness, in- 
spiration, miracle, parable, immortality, righteousness — 
such great terms are constantly used in Sunday-school 
teaching, and often, I fear, with little definite under- 
standing. Socrates knew, and we should know, that to 
get one great thought clearly into a man's head is a good 



134 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

morning's work. Let us follow his example in our zeal 
for definitions. 

One other particular in which we may wisely follow 
the teaching ways of Socrates is his use of illustrations 
from common things. Like our Lord, he saw parables 
everywhere. In this he was quite unlike the pompous 
rhetoricians of his day, who scorned to introduce butchers 
and meat and ships' helms into their elegant harangues, 
and who ridiculed the homely similes wherewith Socrates 
clinched his arguments. 

Here, for instance, is the way Socrates used the argu- 
ment from design, to prove that there is an intelligent 
Creator : " The eyes are weak, but they have two doors 
to protect them, open when we will, closed when we sleep. 
Isn't that an evidence of design? Then, the eyelashes 
grow over them, to strain out the dust from the wind ; and 
the eyebrows jut out over them to hold back the perspira- 
tion from the forehead. Yes, and the ear receives all 
sounds, and is never filled; what do you think of that? 
And the front teeth cut up the food, while the back teeth 
receive it from them and grind it finer ! And the mouth, 
through which we take in food, is placed near the eyes and 
the nose that judge the food ! " In that way Socrates 
went on, developing from these common things his proof 
that there is a good God who made us. 

I hardly think Sunday-school teachers even yet are well 
aware of the immense value of illustrations — yes, the 
necessity of them, if our teaching is to be vital. But il- 
lustrations out of a book are of far less value (though they 
are useful) than illustrations that we have picked up for 
ourselves from the scenes around us, from our own experi- 



HOW SOCRATES TAUGHT 135 

ences and the lives of our scholars. An illustration from 
your backyard is worth ten illustrations from India. A 
comparison to some happening in your town is worth all 
the similes in Shakespeare. Observe and reflect. Ven- 
ture upon the commonplace. You have no less an au- 
thority and example than Socrates. 

But the feature of Socrates' teaching methods that the 
world has most admired and sought to imitate was his 
questioning. Indeed, when we speak of " the Socratic 
method" that is what we generally mean: bringing out 
the truth by a long series of persistent, connected ques- 
tions. Socrates never lectured ; he simply conversed. He 
taught by dialogues. 

When an artist would mold the clay into a form of 
beauty, he shapes the image by a thousand delicate press- 
ings here and pullings there, adding and subtracting as 
the growing realization of the idea demands. Suppose he 
had united all those little pats and pulls into one mighty 
blow ; where would have been the image ? Yet just this 
grotesque mistake is made by those who imagine that the 
delivery of a harangue is teaching. 

The ideal recitation is a conversation ; but it must be a 
real conversation, in which both teacher and scholar are 
thinking. In our class, for instance, we may wish to in- 
struct the pupils in the folly of being angry with disa- 
greeable people, and we may ask : " Johnny, suppose you 
should say ' Good morning ? to somebody, and he should 
look off and not answer ; you ought not to be angry, ought 
you?" 

Johnny: " No, sir." 

One lesson taught, and easily taught: Johnny's con- 



136 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

duct will not probably be materially changed ! But here 
is the way Socrates taught that lesson once : 

Socrates: " You're gloomy to-day, my friend. What's 
the matter ? " 

Friend: " I just passed Lysias, and I said ' Good 
morning ' pleasantly ; but the sullen boor only scowled 
and walked on." 

Socrates: " Well, my friend, suppose you had passed 
a lame man, would you have been angry at his lame- 
ness ? " 

Friend: " No, of course not. Why should I?" 

Socrates: " Or suppose Lysias had been sick with some 
terrible disease; would you have been mad at him for 
that?" 

Friend: " Certainly not. What of it, Socrates ? " 

Socrates: " Well, then, my dear friend, why, pray, 
should you get angry when you meet a man with a diseased 
soul?" 

That lesson will not be forgotten. 

Eead the dialogues of Socrates, as reported by Plato and 
in the " Memorabilia " and " Symposium " by Xenophon, 
and you will gain a superb teaching stimulus along many 
lines, but chiefly along this of the wise use of conversa- 
tion. The interrogation point may well be adopted as 
the symbol of the teacher's art. If you are in the habit 
of spending three hours in reading for your Sunday's 
teaching, storing up a mass of facts, comments, and anec- 
dotes to unload upon your admiring pupils, take my ad- 
vice: spend only half the time in gaining your material, 
and spend the other half in considering how you can best 
present it, in framing your questions so that they will 



HOW SOCRATES TAUGHT 137 

arouse interest, hold attention, and elicit and develop the 
scholars' thought. That is teaching. Anything else is 
lecturing. 

One should not close even a brief account of Socrates' 
teaching without a word about the lofty motives that im- 
pelled it. He was an ardent lover of the truth, one of the 
most sincere and earnest that ever lived. He inspired 
the same love of truth in his pupils, notably Plato. He 
lived solely to discover the truth and show it to others. 
When persecution came because of the truth, he did not 
swerve a hair's breadth. When his enemies brought him 
to trial on charges absurdly false, he adopted no compro- 
mising tone toward his judges. Rather than yield a jot 
of the truth he drank the fatal hemlock, engaging to the 
very last in the high converse to which he had given his 
life. 

What a splendid Christian he would have made ! How 
gladly he would have followed Him who was the Truth 
incarnate! With what joy, guided by the Light of the 
World, he would have walked and leaped where he was 
obliged dimly to grope! Truly in heaven Socrates must 
be filled with gladness when he learns that the methods of 
teaching which he employed with a power so original and 
bold are now set to the service of the one true God, whom 
having not known he served. 



XXIV 

HOW TO TEACH TIMID SCHOLARS 

What Sunday-school class but contains at least one timid 
member? Most classes contain several of them. From 
snch scholars the teacher finds it hard to get satisfactory 
replies, while any real insight into their soul troubles and 
mental perplexities is quite out of the question. The 
timid scholar shrinks from the teacher, and there is none 
of that vital contact of life which is the essence of gen- 
uine teaching. It would be hard, therefore, to name a 
theme that is more important for teachers than just this : 
how to turn the timid, bashful, reserved scholar into the 
scholar that, with all modesty, yet meets the teacher half 
way, and frankly and fully discloses what he knows and 
thinks and feels. 

Timidity is a real misfortune in life. Unless the 
scholar is helped to conquer it, he will find it a hindrance 
in all his undertakings and a constant sorrow to him. It 
will prevent his making the most of his powers, and ac- 
complishing what otherwise he might accomplish in the 
world. If the teacher can aid the bashful scholar to over- 
come his timidity, he will do him a lifelong service. For 
the child's sake, therefore, as well as to promote his own 
work as a teacher, every Sunday-school instructor is bound 
to wage war against timidity. 

Timidity is to be recognized as an unnatural condition 

138 



HOW TO TEACH TIMID SCHOLARS 139 

in children. It is natural for them to be frank and open, 
ready and even eager to tell all they know and ask ques- 
tions about what they do not know. That is the normal 
method of growth in the normal child's mind. Talk is the 
child's university, in which during his first decade he 
learns far more than during all the rest of his life. A 
timid child is to be studied to see what is wrong, in him 
or in the conditions of his life. The remedy for the evil 
will probably be quite different in every case. 

To discover the cause of timidity the teacher must come 
into close personal contact with the child. These are just 
the children with whom, because of their shrinking, it is 
especially hard to come into close contact. The attempt 
must be made by getting the scholar alone. The value of 
quiet talks with a scholar is hardly to be overestimated in 
any instance, but most of all when the scholar is too bash- 
ful to disclose his thoughts in a company. Take a walk 
with the scholar, invite him to your home, or obtain his 
company on some pleasant excursion, and you will make 
more progress with him in an hour than otherwise in a 
year. 

And then, if you would learn the cause of the scholar's 
timidity, you must learn his home surroundings. Ten 
minutes' talk with his father or mother may show you 
that the scholar's timidity is inherited, and therefore ex- 
ceedingly difficult to overcome. Or, you may discover 
that the unfortunate child is repressed by his parents and 
other members of his family, is snubbed and ridiculed 
and in every way driven within his shell. The teacher 
may do the child an inestimable service by talking with his 
parents about his timidity and asking their help in con- 



140 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

quering it, thus opening their eyes to the wrong they are 
doing the boy or girl. 

Perhaps the teacher may come to see that he himself is 
the object of the child's fear, that his scholar expresses 
himself freely except in the teacher's presence. In that 
case, the teacher must lay loving siege to the affection of 
that scholar. He must try in every way to prove himself 
a true and sympathetic friend. He must discover the 
scholar's aspirations and seek to further them. He must 
make himself of genuine service to the scholar, in some 
way, and make manifest the reality of his interest in him. 

More often than any other cause, it is unkind treatment 
received from his comrades that produces the reserve of 
the timid scholar. They have called him " goody-goody " 
when he has expressed some desire for the best in life or 
some interest in religious matters ; or perhaps he has made 
some blunder and they have laughed at him, and with the 
mercilessness of childhood they have pelted him for days 
with sarcastic references to the mistake. 

To remedy this difficulty the teacher must cultivate in 
his class the spirit of good cheer. Get as much fun as 
possible into every recitation. Try to introduce into the 
class work the zest of a game. Make your scholars forget 
themselves in their interest in their studies, and with that 
forgetting the timid ones will lose their timidity. 

Then, try to arouse in your class the spirit of hearty 
appreciation. Speak now and then to one scholar about 
the progress of another scholar. Silent hand-clapping 
may be encouraged, to show the approval of the class when 
one of the number has made a good answer. It will help 



HOW TO TEACH TIMID SCHOLARS 141 

to this end if you can persuade the members of the class 
to study the lesson together, in couples. If a mischievous 
scholar has been making fun of a timid scholar, set the 
two to studying together. Better still, induce the timid 
scholar to study with a stupid or ignorant scholar, and the 
discovery of how much more he knows than the other, and 
the experience of helping and teaching, will contribute de- 
cidedly toward his much-needed confidence. 

If any pupil laughs at the blunder of a bashful scholar, 
turn upon him sharply and ask him to give the correct 
statement. If he succeeds, continue to question him till 
you have arrived at a point of ignorance ; then ask him 
how he would like to be laughed at for it. In such ways 
as this give the class little lessons in courtesy. 

Sometimes the timid scholar hesitates to express him- 
self because he is on novel ground and not sure of him- 
self there. Therefore the value of frequent reviews, great 
in the case of all scholars, is much increased in the case of 
the timid scholar. For his sake especially, go over the 
ground of the lessons often, and in many ways. The 
more familiar he becomes with the subject, the more likely 
he is to speak freely on it. 

Occasionally the timid scholar hesitates to answer, not 
because of the question itself, but because of what he 
fears is behind it; he feels that he is getting into 
deep water. To meet this form of the difficulty 
written work is invaluable. When the timid scholar 
is confronted by a set of written questions, he gladly rec- 
ognizes his chance to be at his best. Such tests bring out 
his real knowledge. There, at least, he is on the same 



142 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

footing as his comrades. Indeed, he is quite likely to do 
better than they do in this written work, and such an 
achievement gives him a fine access of courage. 

When you decide that the timid scholar's difficulty is 
born of ignorance, that he is really behind his classmates 
in knowledge, then your best plan is to study with the 
scholar alone. There is little time in the class for atten- 
tion to individuals. Get the pupil by himself, and you 
will quickly discover what it is that he does not compre- 
hend, and you can soon place him on a level of attainment 
with the rest of the class, and therefore on a level of con- 
fidence. 

Another help, if the scholar's timidity is caused by igno- 
rance, is for the teacher to introduce often into the recita- 
tion matters that he is sure the scholar knows about, and 
then call on him to speak on those points. Thus the les- 
son may be illustrated by some happening in the life of 
that scholar, some place he has visited, something he has 
seen. Telling about it will make the scholar feel neces- 
sary and important, and that feeling is a remedy for 
timidity. 

It would be impossible to exaggerate the value of praise 
in this struggle with a scholar's timidity. Especially if 
the timidity has its origin in ignorance of the subject, or 
in fear of the teacher or the scholars, or in distrust of self, 
generous praise will help to overcome it. The teacher 
should seek eagerly for chances to praise this pupil hon- 
estly. Ask him very easy questions, so as to get answers 
whose correctness you can commend. Learn first what 
the scholar can do or tell, and then call upon him 
to do it or tell it. Praise him before the class. Praise 



HOW TO TEACH TIMID SCHOLARS 143 

him when he is alone. Praise him to his parents. 
Praise him in a friendly letter. Make it generous praise, 
unspoiled by any reference to the timidity you are seeking 
to conquer; no such addition as, " Now you see how well 
you can do ; why won't you always do it ? " Often a 
course in praise is all that is needed to cure the worst case 
of awkwardness and reserve. 

If you yourself ever suffered from timidity, tell the 
scholar about your experience, and how you got the better 
of your bashfulness. Indeed, very likely you still have 
this enemy to fight, and can draw your scholar very close 
to you by a revelation of a common difficulty and the sense 
of a common struggle. 

Eecognize the fact, however, that it is impossible for 
you to help your scholars to overcome timidity if you are 
timid in their presence, or frosty and reserved. Let your- 
self out. Be frank. Be unconstrained. Set the class 
an example of readiness, and openness of heart. It may 
be hard to attain this, but, once attained, it will be of 
priceless value to you and to your scholars. 

Teach the timid scholar to analyze the situation. Is 
he afraid of Tom Jones \ Not a bit ! Or of Bill Ed- 
wards ? Pooh ! Or of Ned Saunders ? Of course not ! 
Then why should he be afraid of these playmates and 
friends when they come together in a class % This argu- 
ment will be found quite effective. 

A capital plan is to see the day-school teacher of the 
timid scholar and compare notes. Perhaps that teacher 
has learned just the method with this pupil that you have 
been seeking. Hear the scholar recite in the public school 
and watch him with his mates there ; you will be sure to 



144 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

get an inkling of the situation that may lead you to vic- 
tory. 

Finally, do not forget that whatever you can do to 
render the Sunday-school lesson more interesting operates 
in just that measure to do away with bashfulness. If he 
is wholly absorbed in the lesson, the most timid scholar 
will forget his reserve, and will answer questions and ask 
them with freedom and delight. 

If, in these ways or in any other way, you can lead a 
timid, awkward, suffering child into self-confidence, into 
the free, glad ability to do his very best and appear his 
best before his fellows, what joy will be yours, and his! 
You will have blessed him beyond measure. Indeed, yours 
will have been half the making of his life. 



XXV 

THREE TEACHING DEVICES 

1. My " Time-Stick." 

It proved to be a most useful instrument for teaching 
the Acts, but it would be quite as useful in teaching any 
other historical portion of the Bible. I used it in a class 
of girls aged about thirteen, but it will be equally service- 
able anywhere in the intermediate department. 

The time-stick is a wooden ruler, flat, a little more than 
an inch wide, and a foot long. I carried it in my pocket 
to the school. 

On one side I fastened with mucilage a strip of white, 
unglazed, unlined, rather thick paper, pressing it down 
over night so that it would be perfectly smooth. The 
whole side of the ruler was covered. 

The right-hand edge was then divided into forty parts, 
one for each year of the Acts, from A. D. 30 to A. D. 70. 
The division marks were made carefully with ink, one- 
eighth of an inch long, the mark at each five years being 
three-eighths of an inch long, and the mark at each ten 
years being three-fourths of an inch long. The number 
of each year was neatly and clearly printed in ink. 

With a small brad-awl I next made holes for the events 

of the Acts as far as the lessons had gone. For instance, 

the year 30 had five holes, arranged diagonally from 

left to right and each a little lower than the one before it. 

145 



146 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

These were for the ascension, the choice of Matthias, Pen- 
tecost, the healing of the lame man, and the trial of Peter 
and John. The next hole came (rather arbitrarily, as I 
explained) at 32, and represented the tragical fate of Ana- 
nias and Sapphira. Thus we went on down the stick as 
the lessons progressed. 

In using the time-stick I place it on the table with a 
little box of pins, and indicate a scholar. She takes up 
a pin, says, " The first event of the Acts was the ascen- 
sion," and inserts a pin in the first hole. This pin is 
one with a large blue head, to symbolize the sky into 
which Christ rose ! The next scholar indicated says, 
" The second event in the Acts was the choice of Matthias 
to succeed Judas," and inserts a plain pin. The third 
scholar puts into the third hole a " gold " (I fear it is a 
brass) pin, to symbolize the golden light of Pentecost. 
Black-headed pins, two in one hole, are used for the death 
of Ananias and Sapphira, and will be used for any ac- 
count of a death. When we came to the zealous Paul, 
all the events in which he takes part were marked with 
red-headed pins. Heads of different colors may be given 
to pins by dipping them in sealing-wax. The times when 
the different Epistles were written were indicated also 
by pins, but these pins bore little bits of paper on which 
were printed the contractions of the names of the books. 

Besides the exercise I have described, the insertion of 
the pins, they may be withdrawn in the same way, the 
event being named with each pin that is pulled out. It 
will be well to have them withdrawn in reversed order, the 
latest date first. A more difficult exercise would be the 
insertion of each pin at random, the teacher pointing to 



THREE TEACHING DEVICES 147 

any one of the holes and the scholar placing a pin there 
and naming the proper event. The pins may also be 
withdrawn at random. 

This time-stick is useful because it fixes the chronolog- 
ical order of the events by a sort of picture in the mind. 
It furnishes a convenient form for frequent review. 
Moreover, there is an element of play in the plan, and the 
children thoroughly enjoy it. 

2. My Peg Map. 

My peg map is a perfectly delightful contrivance. I 
want every teacher to know about it and make one for his 
own use. It may be used for almost any series of lessons, 
but I will describe it as I first used it in a year of studies 
in the Acts and the journeys of Paul. 

I took a map extending from Jerusalem to Damas- 
cus and to Rome. That included the country to be 
covered during the year. You can easily find such a 
map in the teachers' and scholars' helps, but it will be far 
better if you will take time and pains to make the map 
yourself, because then you will use merely the outlines, 
and you will insert only the places with which the lessons 
are concerned. Moreover, you will insert them as they 
are reached in the course of the lessons. 

Paste this map neatly upon a thin block of wood. The 
whole thing can be carried in your pocket — if you are a 
man and have a pocket. 

At each town bore a hole with a small gimlet or awl, and 
make a lot of wooden pegs to fit these holes. 

Your scholars will use the map thus. You will say, 
" Tom, you may start Paul on his first missionary jour- 



148 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

ney." Tom will take a peg, stick it into the Antioch 
(Syria) hole, and say, "Paul started on his first mis- 
sionary journey at Antioch in Syria." At the same time 
Tom will take up a red cord with a loop on the end, and 
will place the loop on the peg. 

" Philip, you may carry the journey on," you say, and 
Philip inserts a peg close by the first, saying, " Paul (and 
Barnabas) went first to Seleucia, the seaport of Antioch." 
At the same time Philip carries on the cord and gives it 
a twist around the Seleucia peg. 

Then the cord is carried on to Salamis in Cyprus, where 
the third peg is placed ; then across the island to the fourth 
peg at Paphos; then again to Perga in Pamphylia, and 
so on. Pinally it returns on itself, using the same pegs, 
and gets back to Antioch. 

When you come to the second missionary journey, use 
a blue cord; and for the third journey use a white cord. 
For other journeys, as to Jerusalem to attend the council, 
use some other color. 

Review every Sunday the journey which you are study- 
ing, having the cord carried on from the beginning. Keep 
on the map the pegs and cords representing all the jour- 
neys as you go on to later ones. 

All the journeys involving Paul may be represented 
by red pegs. If, however, you wish to include in your 
map the journeys of Peter and Philip, paint their pegs of 
different colors. 

It will be helpful if you make extra holes at the places 
where Epistles were written and the places where 
Epistles were received. These may be smaller holes, for 
the insertion of pins. Upon these pins mount little 



THREE TEACHING DEVICES 149 

wooden arrows, and let the direction of the arrows indicate 
the course of the Epistles. For example, the Epistle to 
the Romans was probably written at Corinth. At Corinth, 
therefore, set up an arrow pointing toward Rome. At 
Rome set up another arrow pointing inward toward the 
city, the blunt end pointing toward Corinth. 

This device is easily constructed, and you will find that 
its use widens out in many ways. Moreover, your schol- 
ars will take great pleasure in using it, and in the pleasant 
process will fix the lesson facts so firmly that they will 
become permanent possessions of their minds. 

3. My Chapter Board. 

When all the Sunday-school lessons for considerable 
time lie in one book of the Bible, teachers will wisely de- 
vote much time to fixing an outline of that book in their 
scholars' minds. It should be such an outline that the 
scholars, when an incident of the history is named, can 
turn at once to the part of the book where it is related. I 
do not mean anything elaborate or artificial, dealing with 
the minutiae of verses and sections, but a general though 
perfectly definite idea of the contents of the book. 

One year, for example, when the greater part of the 
lessons were from the Acts and all the lessons were related 
to that book, I contrived what I call a " chapter board." 
The naming of chapters, and the fixing in mind of these 
chapter titles is a well-known and in most cases a per- 
fectly satisfactory method of effecting the end in view. 
The only difficulty is to interest the scholars in this work, 
which is liable to seem to them very dry. My chapter 
Iboard makes play of it. 



150 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

This chapter board consists of a piece of soft pine, of 
a size convenient to carry, into which are driven some 
brads inclined upward at a slight angle. These brads are 
arranged in couples, and there are four rows of them, 
seven couples in each row. Each pair of brads is for one 
of the twenty-eight chapters of the Acts, and so the num- 
bers, from 1 to 28, are printed in clear black immediately 
above them. 

Then I have twenty-eight oblong pieces of heavy card- 
board (pasteboard will do as well, if it has a smooth white 
surface), one for each chapter, but not numbered. On 
these I print, in clear black letters, the titles of the chap- 
ters, bringing forward a new oblong as soon as we enter 
a new chapter in our studies. For ease of remembering 
I use one-word titles whenever possible, and you may like 
to have my list : 

(1) Ascension, (2) Pentecost, (3) Cripple, (4) Trial, 
(5) Ananias, (6) Deacons, (7) Stephen, (8) Philip, (9) 
Saul, iEneas, Dorcas, (10) Cornelius, (11) Antioch, (12) 
Peter, (13) Cyprus, Antioch (Pisidia), (14) Lystra, 
(15) Council, (16) Macedonia, (17) Thessalonica, 
Athens, (18) Corinth, (19) Ephesus, (20) To Jerusalem, 
(21) Arrest, (22) Defense, (23) Plots, (24) Felix, (25) 
Festus, (26) Agrippa, (27) Shipwreck, (28) Kome. 

These chapter titles, of course, may be changed if you 
do not like them, and you may allow your class to sug- 
gest different titles for each chapter, and vote for one of 
them. The pupils will print them neatly at the head of 
the chapters in their Bibles. 

Punch in each oblong piece of cardboard two holes to 
fit over the two brads (two, because they would not hang 



THREE TEACHING DEVICES 151 

straight or steadily with, only one hole), and you are 
ready. 

You may hold up the board and say, " Mary, you may 
place the first chapter." From a box-cover Mary selects 
the oblong marked " Ascension " and hangs it on the 
brads marked 1. " Now, Lucy, the second chapter." 
Thus you will go straight through the book, or as far as 
the lessons have reached. 

After the class has become expert at this, drill it in skip- 
ping around. " Ellen, please hang up the fifth chapter." 
" Now, Jane, chapter ten." And so on. 

Another good way is to hand the board to one of the 
scholars, who will put the chapters in place, one after the 
other, the rest of the class watching. If she makes a mis- 
take, the others will call out, " Wrong ! " and the board 
must be passed to the scholar next on the left, who will 
carry it on till she makes a mistake. Too long hesitation 
will also count as an error. 

Another way emphasizes the topics of the chapters in 
the call, rather than the numbers : " Mary, where is the 
Dorcas chapter ? " Mary finds it in the box-cover, and 
hangs it in space number 9. " Next, Susan, you may 
place the Ananias chapter." 

Still another way is for the teacher, before the recita- 
tion, to hang up all the oblongs face to the board and 
blank side out. " Josephine," the teacher will say, " you 
may turn over the Philip chapter." Josephine turns over 
one of the oblongs; if it is right, she scores one; if it is 
wrong, she scores an error, and some one else has a chance. 
The scholar with the most " rights " and the fewest 
" wrongs " is the victor. 



152 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

You will doubtless be able to invent other ways of 
using this device, and you will easily adapt it to any book 
of the Bible. 



XXVI 

ORGANIZED CLASSES 

What is an organized Sunday-school class \ It is a 
class that has become organic — a body, a living body, of 
which each person in the class is a member — an eye, or 
a tongne, or a hand or foot. 

The nsnal class, I fear, is a rope of sand. If it is any- 
thing better, it is a string of beads, and the teacher is the 
string. If the teacher breaks down, away roll the beads. 
Or, it is a row of steel chips, held together loosely by the 
teacher's magnetism. If that is removed, the steel chips 
fall apart instantly. 

Therefore the test of an organized class is to lose its 
teacher and go right on about its business, holding its 
membership intact, and getting another teacher. That 
proves the class organic. The perpetuating spirit of or- 
ganism has possessed it. The magic does not lie in a con- 
stitution and a set of officers and committees. The magic 
lies in this organic spirit that has been formed. Without 
it, no constitutional paraphernalia is more than a parcel 
of dry bones. 

But a constitution and a set of officers and committees 
are quite indispensable to an organized class. Rightly 
used, they embody its spirit of organism, and furnish its 
means of expression. They constitute the exterior dis- 

153 



154 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

tinction between a class that is organized and a class that 
is not. 

The constitution should be very simple, perhaps always, 
certainly at the start. Let it grow from the mere elements 
of a constitution, and it will be far more likely to have 
life, to be organic. Let it include sections upon the class 
name, purpose, motto, relation to the school, membership, 
teacher, officers, committees, business meetings, elections, 
quorum, and amendments. These may well be grouped 
together, with no separation into constitution and by-laws. 
As I proceed in this discussion I will introduce all the 
sections of a suggested constitution, urging that the great- 
est liberty be taken to adapt any suggested constitution 
to the peculiar needs and desires of the class. 

First, then, will come: 

"Article I. — Name. This shall be called the 

Class of the — ■ Sunday School." 

The value of a well-chosen class name is inestimable. 
Enthusiasm may be aroused for " Class ]STo. 6," and mem- 
ories may cluster about " Class 17," but enthusiasm will 
be more easily aroused for a happier name, and memories 
will attach themselves more gratefully to it. 

Here is a field for originality. Propose many names 
to the class, and let the members suggest others ; then, after 
full discussion, let a majority vote settle the matter. You 
may like to name the class after some famous Bible stu- 
dent or eminent Christian — The Gladstone Class, The 
Roosevelt Class, The Lincoln Class, The Farrar Class, 
The Geikie Class, The Trumbull Class. Or, you may 
prefer the name of some Bible character that is a favorite 
of the scholars — The Caleb Class, The Gideon Class, The 



ORGANIZED CLASSES 155 

Miriam Class, The Deborah Class, The Samuel Class, The 
David Class, The Timothy Class, The Berean Class. Or 
you may select a more general name — The Friendly 
Class, The Seekers, The Explorers, The Pioneers, The 
Searchers, The Bible-Lovers, The Bibliophiles, The Reap- 
ers, The Bible-Miners, The Searchlight Club, The Lantern 
Club, The Jewel Society, The Bible Gem Club. The es- 
sential thing is to get a name that appeals to the im- 
agination of the class and will not wear out. 

Next are: 

" Article II. — Purpose. The purpose of this class is 
to learn all we can about the Bible, and to follow its 
teachings in our lives, especially by mutual helpfulness. 

"Article III. — Motto. The motto of the class is, 



These articles are self-explanatory. The advantages 
of a well-chosen motto are the same as those of an inspir- 
ing name. It adds one more interest to class life, one 
more incentive to being and doing, one more tool for the 
teacher's hand. The motto should be brief and dignified. 
It may be Biblical, such as " One thing I do," or " The 
Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God " ; or it may be 
drawn from secular sources, as, " Fine thoughts are 
wealth " (Bailey) ; or, " Nothing's so hard but search will 
find it out" (Herrick). Besides a class motto, you may 
come to have a class hymn, such as Cowper's " A glory 
gilds the sacred page," and a class banner, and a class 
emblem with a class pin or button or badge. All these 
are legitimate and natural outgrowths of the spirit of 
organism, practically useful as well as pleasing. They 
should, however, be allowed to grow up rather than be 



156 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

devised at the outset and incorporated in the constitu- 
tion ; therefore we may pass on to : 

"Article IV. — Relation to the School. This class is 
a constituent part of the — ■ ■ — ■ — Sunday School, sub- 
ject to its rules, and seeking in every way to advance its 
interests." 

Organized classes have this danger: that they may 
set up independent realms within a realm, thus produ- 
cing jealousies, misunderstanding, and friction. This ar- 
ticle should be adopted honestly, and be kept constantly 
in view in all the class planning and enterprises. 

" Article V. — Membership. Any person becomes a 
member of the class that is proposed by the Membership 
Committee and elected by a majority vote at any meeting 
of the class, and that signs the class constitution." 

This form of election to the class is not intended as a 
barrier against possible undesirable members, but to give 
membership a value in the eyes of the " candidates," and 
make them realize that they belong to an organization and 
have assumed duties with relation to it. 

" Article VI. — Teacher. The class shall elect its 
teacher for one year, at the annual class business meeting 

j n — — , , — m if the teacher is to be absent, he shall 

notify the president, and the class will elect a substitute 
teacher and obtain his services." 

Some superintendents may think that this article places 
too much power in the hands of the class, and may 
not allow it. In my judgment, however, formed after 
considerable personal experience and observation, this 
danger is very much more than offset by the increased 
loyalty of the class to a teacher whom they have elected 



ORGANIZED CLASSES 157 

and continue to elect annually, and by their feeling of 
responsibility for supporting him, while the provision for 
their choice of a substitute teacher is especially useful. 
A committee of the class should wait upon the person 
honored by the invitation and urge his acceptance of it. 
Undoubtedly such a request will be granted far more 
readily than if it came from either the superintendent 
or the teacher, and many a discovery of possible teachers 
will be made by the courageous enterprise of the young 
people themselves. 

" Article VII. — Officers. The officers of the class 
shall be a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and 
Treasurer, whose duties will be those usually assigned to 
such officers." 

Upon these officers the wise teacher will lay all the re- 
sponsibility he can. Thus he will relieve himself and 
develop them, while making them realize that the class 
is their own. Insist that the president or vice-president 
preside whenever business is up. Let him take your place 
in front of the class. Let the secretary keep all records ; 
and if the teacher also keeps a record, let him keep it 
to himself! Let the treasurer pay out all money, and 
only on the vote of the class. This may or may not apply 
to the regular Sunday contributions of the class, as the 
school officers direct. I believe, however, that the class 
will give more liberally, heartily, and intelligently to the 
causes for which the school asks contributions if it does 
so by vote. These officers will be held responsible for the 
order of the class, and for all the management of class 
affairs, leaving the teacher free to devote himself to the 
teaching; though of course in all matters the teacher will 



158 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

be, when necessary, the power behind these various 
thrones. 

" Article VIII. — Committees. The standing com- 
mittees shall be a membership committee, to seek new 
members, propose their names, and introduce them to the 
class; an invitation committee, to invite to the class all 
they can from the Sunday congregations and elsewhere; 
and a social committee, to plan and conduct the class so- 
cials. Each committee shall consist of a chairman and 
two other members." 

While, of course, the teacher will be on the lookout 
for new members, he will know that the membership 
committee can persuade them to join better than he can, 
since they can speak most freely and convincingly about 
the interest of the class and the helpfulness of the teacher. 

The invitation committee may well divide the church 
auditorium among them, each to look after a certain sec- 
tion of it. They should not only invite the strangers, but 
accompany them to the class and introduce them. 

The class socials should be held monthly, at the homes 
of the members. There should be refreshments, to break 
up formality, but they should be limited strictly to the 
simplest kind, such as nuts and apples, or cake and 
lemonade. Games should be played, there should be sing- 
ing, but the chief interest should center around the topic, 
whatever it is, that most pleases the class — athletic, mu- 
sical, literary, or practical. For example, I once had an 
organized class of young men who took turns at their 
socials in telling about their occupations. The banker's 
clerk gave us an evening in a bank (figuratively speak- 
ing) ; the commercial traveler for a shoe firm told us how 



ORGANIZED CLASSES 159 

shoes are made, bringing them in all stages; the fish- 
dealer told us most entertainingly about fish; perhaps 
the most instructive evening, unexpectedly, was furnished 
by a clerk in a men's furnishing store, who brought his 
samples of the newest garments and accessories ! If you do 
not adopt this plan, you may base your socials on current 
events, or natural history studies, or studies of art or of 
missions. Strangers may sometimes be invited, to inter- 
est them in the class. Joint socials may be held with 
other classes similarly organized. 

These are the fundamental committees, but you should 
have as many committees as you can work (and no more), 
and it is a good plan to place every member of the class 
upon some committee. One of the best organized classes 
I know has an instruction committee. Such a committee, 
in an adult class, may even propose courses of study and 
lesson helps, upon which the class will vote. In any 
class an instruction committee may aid the teacher greatly 
by drawing maps, making diagrams, copying lists of 
questions, and carrying to the scholars notifications of 
assignments. An attendance committee may be formed 
to visit absent scholars and see that their interest is main- 
tained. An advertising committee would be very use- 
ful, to " get up the name " of the class, print invitations 
and circulate them, print an occasional poster, and insert 
notices of the class work and plans in the church paper 
and the town paper, besides an occasional notice of special 
class meetings read in the Sunday school. 

I will complete the suggested constitution, though the 
remaining articles are self-explanatory: 

" Article IX. — Business meetings. The class will hold 



160 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

a business meeting in connection with each monthly so- 
cial, an annual business meeting in the week of 

, and special business meetings at the call of the 

president. 

"Article X. — Elections. The officers and committees 
shall be elected at the annual business meeting, but va- 
cancies may be filled at any business meeting. New 
members may be proposed and elected at any meeting of 
the class. 

" Article XI. — Quorum. A quorum for the transac- 
tion of business shall be one-half of the class member- 
ship. 

" Article XII. — Amendments. This constitution may 
be amended by a vote of three-fourths of the class mem- 
bership at any meeting of the class." 

The foregoing constitution is adapted to a class of older 
pupils. It will be helpful if I add some account of an 
organized class of young boys which I have had the joy of 
teaching. 

This class of seventeen boys was organized at their 
own request. Young folks are delighted with constitu- 
tions and officers and committees and business meetings. 
Familiarity with these matters has not yet taken the ro- 
mance out of them. They are discovering the joys of co- 
operation, and it is the teacher's pleasure to direct them in 
this new country. 

So far as possible, the class organization should be 
formed by the young people themselves, the teacher put- 
ting in a quiet word only where it is necessary. Let it 
appear to be their organization, and not yours, and they 
will enjoy it far more. 



Organized classes 161 

Therefore I did not write a constitution for my class, 
but asked the class one Sunday to appoint a committee 
on constitution consisting of three boys. 

I did not suggest what three should be appointed, but 
took those they gave me; and the selection was an excel- 
lent one. 

We spent a delightful evening in my study writing the 
constitution, with the accompaniment of a box of candy. 
We talked over what a constitution ought to contain, and 
after I had given a hint or two the boys were able to 
formulate the various articles and sections fairly well. 
Though the result is not in all points quite as I would 
have it, yet it is their own, and is most creditable to 
them. 

I will copy this simple constitution, introducing an- 
notations, and thus I can give the best idea of the class 
organization : 

"Article I. — Name. This class shall be called The 
Knights of Honor." 

We left the name blank, to be determined later by 
vote of the class, and this is the name chosen. I sent to 
a Sunday-school supply house for a dozen different cellu- 
loid class pins, costing a cent each. These were passed 
around and discussed, and the class took the pin and ac- 
companying name that pleased them. 

"Article II. — Object. The objects of the class are 
Bible study, to help one another, and to have good times 
together." 

It is well to have the class repeat this article occa- 
sionally in concert at the opening of the weekly recita- 
tions. 



162 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

"Article III. — Members. The members of the class 
shall be boys who are nominated by the membership com- 
mittee and voted in by the class. The teacher may ter- 
minate membership for persistent failure in attendance, 
home study, or attention in the class and in the general 
exercises of the school." 

The reader may guess which sentence thus far came 
most directly from my pen! But the boys assented to 
this very heartily, and even would have made it more 
stringent than I thought wise. 

" Article IV. — Button. The class button shall be red, 
with a gold shield bearing a white cross and the letters 
JL EL, in black." 

" Article V. — Teacher. The teacher shall be appointed 
by the superintendent. In his absence, substitute teach- 
ers shall be obtained by the class officers." 

This is an important section. As I have just said, an 
invitation to teach, coming from a committee of the boys 
themselves, is very likely to be accepted. I found the 
boys very enterprising and successful in getting substi- 
tute teachers. 

"" Article VI. — Officers. The officers shall be a Presi- 
dent, Vice-president, Secretary, and Treasurer. The 
president shall preside at the business meetings of the 
class, and superintend the work of the committees. He 
shall take the lead in obtaining substitute teachers. The 
vice-president shall help the president in every way, and 
do his work in his absence. The secretary shall keep 
the records of the class, and take charge of the attend- 
ance cards. The treasurer shall take charge of the collec- 
tion and of all class money." 



ORGANIZED CLASSES 163 

When you come to elect these officers, it will be well 
to say a few words about the qualifications that each 
should have, and then let the boys or girls nominate 
freely for each, afterward voting by ballot. It is better 
not to have the ideal selection than to dictate; and at the 
next election there will be a rearrangement. 

" Article VII. — Committees. — Section 1. — Member- 
ship Committee. This committee shall consist of three 
members, whose duty it shall be to obtain new members 
for the class." 

The size of these committees will depend, of course, 
upon the size of your class, and some committees, such 
as the social committee, may well be made larger than 
others. Give every one an office or a place on some com- 
mittee. In small classes it may even be well for some 
pupils to hold two positions. 

" Section 2. — Social Committee. This committee 
shall consist of three members, whose duty it shall be to 
plan and carry out class socials at the homes of the mem- 
bers or elsewhere." 

I had this committee meet at my house and plan the 
socials with me. I bought sixteen folding chairs which 
the boys transported from house to house. We had 
monthly socials at the time and place most convenient 
for the parents. I insisted that the " treat " should be 
simple, and the hour of adjournment early. We began 
our socials with a formal business meeting, which the 
boys enjoyed for its practice of parliamentary law. Then, 
for the rest of the evening — fun ! 

" Section 3. — Attendance Committee. This commit- 
tee shall consist of three members, whose duty it shall be 



164: SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

to take the home-study slips to the absentees, learn the 
reason for their absence, and report to the teacher." 

In a large class there are usually a few absentees. 
This committee shows them that they are not forgotten, 
and helps to keep the attendance at high-water mark. 

" Section 4. — Boom Committee. This committee shall 
consist of three members, whose duty it shall be to ar- 
range chairs and hymn-books, open and shut the door and 
glass partition, take care of the ventilation, and tidy the 
classroom after the recitation." 

I also had the room committee distribute the pencils, 
paper, home-study slips, and the like. 

" Section 5. — Athletic Committee. This committee 
shall consist of three members, whose duty it shall be to 
organize the class for athletic sports, hold contests with 
other classes, and in other ways promote athletics in the 
class." 

This committee is indispensable in a boys' class ! 

" Section 6. — Order Committee. This committee 
shall consist of the officers, whose duty it shall be to keep 
order in the class." 

It is a first-rate plan to read this section to the class oc- 
casionally ! 

After this constitution was thus formed, I had the class 
meet in my study one evening, and I read the constitu- 
tion, article by article, explaining everything and answer- 
ing questions. It was voted article by article, and then 
as a whole. 

Next we elected officers, and the newly chosen president 
and secretary were put right to work. 

This constitution is very simple. It is better, as I told 



ORGANIZED CLASSES 165 

the boys, to start out with a simple organization, and 
elaborate it as we find need. For example, we had no 
athletic committee in our constitution at first, but the boys 
promptly inserted one. That was something that I 
learned about boys. 

A classroom helps immensely in carrying on an organized 
class, but even if you must meet in a large and crowded 
room, you may gain much privacy by the use of screens 
and curtains. 

Emphasize the class organization at every opportunity. 
Let the class do their own planning as far as possible. 
Even a poor plan that the scholars devise is superior to 
a much better plan imposed upon them by the teacher. 

Do things as a class. Go camping together. Visit a 
museum together, or attend a lecture. Get up a worth- 
while entertainment. Take class walks. Help some one, 
as a class. 

Begin slowly. Do not expect full results at the start. 
Look for growth, but for a gradual growth. 

Above all, do not forget, in your zeal for your organ- 
ized class, Whose organ your class is to be, for Him to 
make music upon ! Only as the Holy Spirit of the living 
God breathes upon and in your elass organization will it 
be really organic, pulsing with a genuine vitality that will 
blossom in joy, and bear fruit in loving and enduring 
service. 



XXVII 

IF I WERE BEGINNING TO TEACH 

It is easy to make mistakes in Sunday-school teaching. 
That fact proves the greatness of the work. It is only 
little tasks that one can succeed in immediately. At the 
start a lawyer is sure to make more and worse mistakes 
than the section hand of a railroad. Looked at in this 
light, and remembering the vastness of our Sunday-school 
work with its enormous issues in time and eternity, the 
wonder is not that we make many errors, but that we ever 
make any successes. 

And yet the fewer mistakes we make, and the sooner 
we get out of them, the better; and if the experience of 
one who has taught in Sunday school for about thirty years 
can do any good, here it is. I will make a frank con- 
fession, so that at least you need not make the same mis- 
takes that I made. 

If I had it to do over again, I should think less of 
myself, and I should think more of my pupils and very 
much more of Christ. I should not worry about the im- 
pression I was making, but I should seek to have Him 
make an impression upon my pupils, though through my 
failure. I should not try to shine, but I should try to 
make Christ's life shine out. I should not seek to be 
popular, but to make Him so. Probably I should find 

this the very best way to obtain popularity for myself; 

166 



IF I WEEE BEGINNING TO TEACH 167 

but if I did not obtain it, but did gain my main end, I 
should not care. 

_Then, if I could begin again, I should make less elabo- 
rate preparation for my teaching. I should learn to sim- 
plify my teaching, and to focus it more upon a few facts 
and truths. As I remember it, I used to put enough into 
each half hour for two full hours. The result must have 
been to confuse my pupils and fill them with dismay. I 
should have remembered that they were at the beginning, 
or near the beginning, of their Bible study. I should 
have put myself in their place. I should have insisted 
upon first things first, and then, after the first things were 
mastered, and not till then, I should have gone on to the 
second things. I should have made haste slowly, and 
I am sure that I should have arrived much sooner at the 
goal. 

_ If I had it to do over again, I should think less of what 
I was giving and more of what they were getting. I 
did little or nothing, at the start, to make my pupils 
study at home. I gave out no home work. My teaching 
was all lectures, though usually under the thin disguise 
of questions and answers. Thus I was all the time pour- 
ing into baskets full of holes. Their home study, though 
probably it would have been very inadequate, yet would 
have provided a solid cup of attention into which I might 
have poured something that they would have retained. 
This was a very bad mistake of mine. 

I should have discovered this mistake if I had tested 
my work, but I did not do this. I did not really " ex- 
amine " them in any way. Now, I give examinations, 
written examinations, almost every Sunday ; and the proc- 



168 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

ess, invaluable as it is, takes only five minutes. If I had 
examined my pupils in those early days, what surprises 
I should have gained, for them and for me! Every 
teacher should know, and cause his pupils to know, 
whether they are actually making progress in Bible knowl- 
edge or not ; but I used to " teach " straight along in 
blissful ignorance that I was not really teaching anything 
— or very little at the most. 

When I began to teach I did not make the great mis- 
take of not having a deep personal interest in my pupils, 
and I think that I had a personal influence over them; 
but I did not visit them at their homes, or have them 
visit me at my home, or write to them, or get up little 
parties for them, or take them to lectures, or go out walk- 
ing with them, or do anything else of the kind; I just 
talked to them on Sundays. If I had those pupils now 
I should do all of those things, and I should get far deeper 
into their lives, that I might know better just how and 
where to help them. Once, after teaching a certain young 
man for several years, thinking all the time that he was a 
firm believer in Christianity, I discovered to my dismay 
that he was a very thorough agnostic. I should not make 
that mistake now. 

The reason why I made that mistake was because I did 
not try to bring my pupils into a definite Christian life. 
I did not emphasize the necessity of a Christian confes- 
sion ; or, if I did, it was all general emphasis, not brought 
to a head by definite tests, what the evangelists call 
" drawing the net." I did not use " decision cards." I 
did not approach their parents in regard to the matter. I 
did not have conversations with my pupils, one at a time, 



IF I WERE BEGINNING TO TEACH 169 

about their joining the church. I do all this now, and 
count it the crown of my Sunday-school work. At the 
beginning of every lesson during the studies made through 
1910 in the life of Christ I asked my class, " Why are 
we studying Matthew this year % " And the class answered 
in concert, " To know Jesus Christ better." That is the 
use of it all, not the mere gaining of head knowledge. 
Otherwise I might almost as well be teaching botany. 

In fine, if I were again at the beginning of my Sun- 
day-school work, I should try above all else to teach with 
the great Teacher. I should pray more, rely more on 
Him, and go with calm confidence before my class. I 
should be at peace however mischievous the pupils might 
be, and love them however impudent they might 
be, because Christ would do this, and He would be in my 
heart and in my teaching. Oh, it is blessed work, when 
He is with us. I know that all of you, dear fellow-teach- 
ers, are saying in your hearts, " Amen ! " 



XXVIII 

BEARING EACH PUPIL IN MIND 

There are two kinds of soldiers. One shuts his eyes 
and fires away, having the general idea that bullets are 
good for the atmosphere. The other picks out his enemy, 
aims for him, and brings him down. 

There are two kinds of farmers. Farmer A, being of 
the opinion that seeds are good for the soil, rams them 
in — any seeds, any field. Farmer B studies the soil, the 
seeds, and the seasons, considers what was the last crop 
borne by the field, and so plants as to get the largest re- 
turns. 

There are two kinds of physicians. Dr. Smith believes 
that a " spring tonic " is good for boys and so prescribes 
it, any boy, any tonic, any spring. Dr. Jones fits the 
medicine to the sickness. 

There are two kinds of cooks. Mrs. Brown holds that 

" vittles is vittles," and so prepares for her table any food 

at any time. Mrs. White studies food values, what foods 

make muscle and what make fat, what foods are easily 

digested and what are most nutritious; studies also the 

special needs of the persons for whom she is providing, 

and considers the season of the year and the time of day ; 

then she fixes upon her menu in the light of all these 

facts. 

170 



BEARING EACH PUPIL IN MIND 171 

Precisely thus there are two kinds of teachers. One 
kind thinks that all truth is equally good for all pupils. 
The other kind seeks to fit truths to pupils according to 
their needs at the particular time. 

Now the first set of workers may do good. The ran- 
dom hullet may hit a foe. Some of the careless farmer's 
seeds will germinate. The spring tonic may in some case 
be what is needed. Part of Mrs. Brown's provisions may 
be digested. Some of the hit-or-miss truths may reach 
the lives of the pupils. But what a waste of time and 
thought and strength and material! And how incom- 
parably more efficient is the second set of workers ! 

How can we do this ? How can we fit our teaching to 
each pupil? 

In the first place, as soon as we have returned from 
Sunday school let us review in our minds the experiences 
of the past hour. What needs of our pupils have been 
disclosed ? What faults have been made manifest ? 
What in our teaching has interested them most? What 
has seemed to help any one of the class ? What would 
you like to do for Sarah next week ? for Tom ? for Harry ? 
In this way get the present condition of each pupil clearly 
in mind. Many teachers fail to make progress in their 
art because they do not garner the pedagogical hints of 
each lesson they teach. 

It is a help to write all this out very definitely. Pule 
a sheet of paper in columns, each column headed by a 
pupil's name, while beneath, Sunday after Sunday, you 
will make your notes. This Sunday, perhaps, under Tom 
you will write " impatient " ; under Ed, " conceited " ; 
under Will, " not interested " ; under Fred, " mischiev- 



172 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

ous " ; under Samuel, " surly.'' You will also make notes 
of progress ; as, under John, " interested in Lincoln anec- 
dote " ; under Benjamin, " asked a good question " ; un- 
der Theodore, " gave a good account of the Cana miracle." 

Then, as soon as possible, take up the study of the next 
lesson, and ask yourself what there is in it for each of 
your pupils, to correct their fault or increase their prog- 
ress. How can you interest Will ? Perhaps you will give 
him a book with a delightful chapter connected with the 
lesson, which he is to read and report upon to the class. 
How about Ed's conceit? You may plan some particu- 
larly hard questions to ask him. How about Sam's surli- 
ness ? You may write him a bright and loving letter, 
asking him to prepare especially on the geography of the 
lesson, and be responsible for that detail of the work. 
How about Tom's impatience ? You may have him draw 
a map of the country involved in the lesson, and if you 
can have him do the work with Sam who is to give the 
map talk, it will be good for both boys. How about 
Fred's mischief ? You may get him to make notes of the 
questions that are not well answered during the recitation 
and ask them again at the close. And how about John ? 
Give him an anecdote to tell, illustrating the lesson. And 
Benjamin? Ask him to write out a few good questions 
of his own for you to use in teaching. And Theodore? 
Assign to him the task of giving an account of the events 
that come between the last lesson and this. 

Somewhat thus you will make use of your teaching 
experience. You have at least taken special thought for 
each pupil and devised for each some special work that 
fits the disclosure of himself that he has just made. 



BEARING EACH PUPIL IN MIND 173 

In the course of the next lesson he may make a new 
disclosure of character, calling for different work ; or, 
he may repeat the same showing and thus indicate the 
need for more of the same kind of work. In any case 
the principle I am insisting upon does not change. 

Do not teach at blank haphazard. Practise intensive 
teaching. Put each truth where it will do the most good. 
Assign each bit of class work to the pupil whom it will 
help the most. Thus and thus only will you be the work- 
man that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing 
the word of truth. 



XXIX 

BIBLE DRILLS 

Most of us can remember the time when there was far 
more memorizing of the Bible than is now required of 
our Sunday-school scholars. We are profoundly thank- 
ful for the Bible passages drilled into our minds when 
we were children. They form to this day the substance 
of our portable Bibles. Most of us believe that more of 
the Bible should be memorized by our children, and we 
are perfectly willing that time shall be taken from the 
regular lesson half-hour in the Sunday school, if neces- 
sary, for that purpose. 

Some of us, also, remember the time before the advent 
of the lesson leaf, when the Bible itself, the authentic 
volume, was far more familiar to the hands of the children 
than the convenient but misleading slips of paper have 
allowed it to be since. We should be glad to have the 
Bible — the whole Book — brought back into the school 
again; and we are ready, if necessary, to sacrifice some 
time to accomplish this end also. 

To gain these two objects, I wish we might devote a 
portion of every Sunday-school session, in every class that 
does not consider itself too big for it, to some such Bible 
drills as I shall suggest in this chapter. It will be neces- 
sary first to drill the teachers themselves in these methods, 

and that should be done in the teachers' meeting. To 

174 



BIBLE DRILLS 175 

arouse enthusiasm, it may be thought wise to offer some 
suitable reward to every class or every scholar that comes 
up to a certain standard in the work. 

The time for the drills will vary according to the school 
arrangements and preferences. Some will like to use 
them at the opening of the lesson half hour, to wake up 
the scholars. Some will prefer to get the lesson over, 
and use in this way whatever time remains. Some teach- 
ers will like to utilize in Bible drills the time when the 
class are waiting for the school to begin ; only, not all their 
class may be present at that time. My own choice of 
time would be the first ^.Ye minutes of the lesson half hour. 

If this work is entered upon in earnest, it will be a 
shame for the children to have Bibles that are not worthy 
to be their permanent friends. Whatever book they use 
will become familiar to them in every square inch, as no 
succeeding Bible is likely to become. It should there- 
fore be well bound, it should be well printed, it should 
have the clearest type, and it should contain the best helps. 
Show the parents what a degree of intimacy is sought by 
the exercises, and plead with them to furnish the best 
copies for their children's use at this important period. 

The first drill should aim to make the children perfectly 
familiar with the sixty-six books of the Bible — a drill 
in text-finding. You will simply call for a text, say 
" Nehemiah 3 : 10," and the first to find it will put up 
his hand. When most of the hands are up, you will name 
some one — probably the one whose hand went up first — 
to read it. In this simple exercise the children will be 
greatly interested, and will soon become remarkably ex- 
pert. 



If 6 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

Little catches will be introduced, to keep their wits 
awake. " Jude 2 : 24," you will call, and you will expect 
half a dozen laughing voices to remind you that Jude 
has only one chapter. Other traps will be set, such as 
"Philemon 2-: 3," " Exodus 51:3," " Ps. 160:5," "3 
Peter 1 : 6," " Azariah 3 : 15." 

Very soon you will get them so familiar with certain 
verses that when you call for them they will quote them 
in concert without stopping to look them up ; such verses, 
for example, as John 3:16; Ps. 90:1; 1 Cor. 13:1; 
Matt. 5:3. 

The reverse of this exercise is useful. The teacher will 
quote a verse, in whole or in part, and the scholars will 
find it in the Bible. " The greatest of these is love," the 
teacher will say. The class will find the verse and read 
it entire, " And then thou shalt have good success," the 
teacher will say ; and the scholars, with no other hint, will 
turn to Josh. 1 : 8 and read the whole verse. This will 
be like proving a sum in arithmetic, and will show that 
the scholar has really learned where to find certain texts 
when they are wanted. 

The same method should be applied to longer passages. 
" Find the parable of the prodigal son," will be the de- 
mand ; or, " Find the Beatitudes ; the seven letters to the 
churches ; the travelers' Psalm ; one account of Paul's con- 
version; the list of heroes of faith; the account of the 
burning bush." 

When the passage is less familiar, an easier form of 
the exercise should be used, naming the book that is to be 
explored. " Find, in Ephesians, the list of the Chris- 
tian's armor. Find in Romans the verse about being 



BIBLE DRILLS 177 

6 fervent in spirit.' Find, in John, the account of the 
resurrection of Lazarus. Find, in Proverbs 11, the say- 
ing about i the liberal soul.' " 

Still another useful exercise is based upon a knowl- 
edge of the general contents of the books. " To what 
book," you will ask, " would you go to find out about 
Caleb ? about Solomon ? Boaz ? Cornelius ? Mordecai ? In 
what book will you find the story of Gideon's band? the 
story of Naboth's vineyard ? the account of the tempta- 
tion ? the miracle of the raising of the widow's son at 
Nain?" 

A variation of this test is the following : " Who will be 
the first to find a verse about Moses ? about Joseph ? 
David? Daniel? John the Baptist? Paul? " Or, applied 
to topics, " Who will be the first to read a verse about 
obedience ? about love ? about sin ? about Christ ? " 

It would be a stimulus in this work if an occasional 
contest should be arranged. A programme of tests would 
be fixed, each teacher having a copy. On a signal, the 
classes would be set to work simultaneously, and the class 
would be the victor that at the expiration of the time had 
gone the farthest in the programme. 

The scholars should be taught to repeat in concert and 
separately the names of the books of the Bible, together 
with other Bible facts, such as the number of books, the 
shortest chapter and verse, the longest, the central, the 
longest book, Paul's letters, the minor prophets. 

The learning of " memory chains " will prove a really 
fascinating task. These " memory chains " are strings 
of verses all on the same subject, such as faith, hope, love, 
obedience, salvation, money. The verses will be arranged 



178 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

alphabetically, and any mnemonic device may be utilized. 
These little collections of Bible wisdom will be of the 
greatest usefulness in Christian work through all the after 
life of the scholars. The questions that call for the verse- 
chains will indicate how they are to be used ; for instance : 
" What would you say to one who was in grief % to some 
one who thought too much about money ? to a man who 
used strong drink ? " 

Each scholar should be asked to select a chain of verses 
that begin with the various letters composing his name. 
These verses should be chosen with extreme care, so as 
to be those most likely to be helpful in his life. The 
recitation of them will make a very pretty exercise at 
some Sunday-school concert. 

These Bible drills are not complete till they teach the 
use of those indispensable aids to the Bible student — 
the concordance, Bible index, and Bible atlas. The use 
of the concordance will be taught by giving out a verse, 
such as " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wis- 
dom," and setting the scholars to finding it by the use of 
the concordance (a full concordance, by the way, and not 
the abbreviated abominations found in the teachers' Bi- 
bles). Leave it to the scholars to look it up through the 
word " fear/' or " Lord," or " wisdom," or " beginning." 
Those that use ■" beginning " will doubtless find it first, 
and the scholars will have an example of the advantage of 
basing their search upon the word that is least common. 

The use of the index will be taught by such questions 
as, " Find and read some Bible verse about the locust." 
The list of proper names will be used in similar fashion : 
" Find a reference to the river Pharpar." The atlas will 



BIBLE DRILLS 179 

be used thus : " In what division of Asia Minor is Ico- 
nium ? " Questions like these, asked briskly and with 
ingenious variations, will quickly familiarize the pupils 
with these tools, which many Christians never do learn 
how to use, and therefore their Bibles remain largely 
closed to them. 

The concert recitation of Bible passages is an attractive 
exercise. Many fine sections suitable for this purpose will 
occur to every one — Jas. 3:2-12; Isa. 53 and 55; Ps. 
1 ; Deut. 28 : 1-14. There is no trouble in finding many 
selections. The Psalms should be rendered by the class 
in two divisions, one taking the first half of each stanza, 
and the other the second. Such Psalms as 136 and 150 
are especially effective in that way. Passages in the form 
of question and answer should be given in the same way, 
half the class reciting the questions and half the answers. 
Thus, " Who hath woe % " Dialogue passages should be 
treated similarly, the descriptive sentences and phrases, 
however brief, being given by one group, with a separate 
group for each speaker. Isa. 6 is a fine example of the 
possibilities of this plan. 

An interesting variety of this concert recitation by 
groups is what may be called concert annotations. One 
half the class, for instance, will repeat the Lord's Prayer, 
pausing at the end of each section for the other half to 
repeat some parallel passage, thus: 

Our Father — 

Worship the Father in spirit and in truth. 

Which art in heaven — 

The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with 
hands. 



180 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

Hallowed he thy name — 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 

Thy kingdom come — 

The kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and 
joy in the Holy Ghost. 

In this way the Twenty-third Psalm may he annotated, 
the Beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, and many other 
familiar passages. 

Perhaps the most elaborate and interesting Bible drill 
is the concert recitation with gestures. Take for an ex- 
ample the parable of the sower (Matt. 13 : 1-11, 18-23).. 
I heard this once beautifully rendered by a large class of 
girls, who came marching to the platform, garlanded, and 
each with a basket hung at her side. They stood at even 
distances, several rows deep, covering the platform, and 
they repeated the well-known words in perfect unison, 
in full volume, and with perfectly timed and natural ges- 
tures, somewhat thus: 

" Behold (hands stretched out and slightly raised) — a 
sower (hand sweeping to the basket) — >went forth (a 
step forward) — to sow (scattering imaginary seed grace- 
fully from the basket). — And when he sowed (continued 
scattering) — some seeds (hands lifted) — fell by the 
wayside (hands swept downward and sideways) — and 
the fowls came (hands lifted upward and suddenly swoop- 
ing downward) — and devoured them up (a grasping 
movement)." 

Many impressive passages may thus be acted out while 
they are recited in concert. The parable of the prodigal 
son; the twenty-third Psalm; the stilling of the tempest; 
the parable of the tares ; the parable of the good Samari- 



BIBLE DRILLS 181 

tan; Elijah's struggle on Mount Carmel — these may 
serve as examples. 

Of course in all this work it must be understood — it 
will be understood — that what is sought is heart-knowl- 
edge and not merely head-knowledge. But the latter 
leads to the former, and is its indispensable requisite. 
Let us store the children's heads with the words of life ! 
We can form no idea of the blessed results as the grand 
old sentences recur through the years and decades, to 
warn, to comfort, and to save. 



XXX 

A COURSE IN CHURCH HISTORY 

It has always been a hobby of mine that adult classes 
in the Sunday school should — study the Bible, of course, 
for their main work, but also, now and then, study the 
continuation of the Acts of the Apostles in the wonderful 
history of the Christian Church. 

The average layman — and also every layman, average 
or far beyond the average — is wof ully ignorant regard- 
ing the history of his own denomination, not to speak of 
the history of other denominations. God is in this his- 
tory, as well as in the Bible history; increasingly so, as 
men are coming to know Him better and obey Him more 
faithfully. To be sure, we have no inspired record of 
it, but that is no reason why we should not study it. 

And so I was very glad when the adult class in my 
Sunday school, having before it for selection a large num- 
ber of proposed subjects for study, voted to take up one 
year the study of Church history. It is a very inde- 
pendent class, fortunate in a large membership of think- 
ing folks, and quite capable of getting up its own courses 
of study. It has been doing this, with entire success, for 
several years. The class is thoroughly organized, with 
the usual officers, and with committees for getting new 
members and planning and carrying out the work of in- 
struction. There is no teacher, but each Sunday sees a 

182 



A COURSE IN CHURCH HISTORY 183 

different teacher, except when a short course is taught by 
one person. 

It was decided to take a bird's-eye view of the entire 
field of Church history, from the close of the Acts to the 
present time. We knew it would be shockingly sketchy, 
but we knew also that we could take up any particular 
period afterwards for more adequate study, if we chose. 
Bird's-eye views are best, when one enters upon unfa- 
miliar territory. 

I am sure that many will be glad to have the exact sub- 
divisions that we used, and I give them here, Sunday by 
Sunday. 

1. Traditions concerning the work and death of the 
apostles. The destruction of Jerusalem. Persecutions 
and martyrs. 

2. The Apostolic Fathers, Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, 
etc. The Gnostics. 

3. Constantine. The Council of Elce. The Arian 
controversy. 

4. The Greek Fathers, Basil, the Gregories, Chrysos- 
tom. The Ascetics. Later councils. 

5. The Latin Fathers, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine. 
The Donatist schism, Pelagian controversy and other 
heresies and controversies. The Apostolic and Athana- 
sian Creeds. 

6. The Early Church of England. Bede, Augustine. 
History of the times. 

7. The Crusades. 

8. The rise of the papacy. 

9. Religious orders. 

10. Dawn of the Beformation. Wyclif, Huss. 



184 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

11. Savonarola. 

12. Luther. 

13. Zwingli. The Huguenots. 

14. The Jesuits and their missions. 

15. Calvin. 

16. Arminianism. Puritanism. Knox and Presby- 
terianism. 

17. Congregationalism. Robinson and the Pilgrims. 

18. Westminster Assembly. Cromwell. 

19. Wesley and Methodism. 

20. Jonathan Edwards. Later revivals. 

21. The Church in the French Revolution. 

22. German liberalism. 

23. Modern missions. 

24. Modern social progress. 

25. Modern Romanism. 

!N~o one can say that this is not a generous "lay-out," 
as the boys say, — over-generous, perhaps. But are they 
not inspiring topics ? And are not the possibilities in such 
a series, for inspiration and solid upbuilding, altogether 
limitless ? 

We got out a neatly printed programme, or prospectus, 
following each subject with a useful list of reference 
books, choosing those that are most likely to be within 
reach of every one. Every lesson has a different teacher, 
and in the list are the names of many eminent scholars. 
I do not display them here, because that would be need- 
lessly discouraging. 

Eor such a course as this is well within the possibilities 
of the average school. Every member of the class should 
own a text-book, such as Sohm's " Outlines of Church 



A COURSE IN CHURCH HISTORY 185 

History" (Macmillan, 1895), or Moncriefs " Short His- 
tory of the Christian Church" (Eevell, 1902). In addi- 
tion, you must place at the disposal of the teachers a 
collection of the most extended histories and biographies, 
including a first-class encyclopaedia. Having done this, 
however, any adult class of average ability can carry on a 
course in Church history with abounding pleasure and 
profit. 

You may have one teacher or many. In either case, 
you will utilize all the members of the class, assigning 
to them various subdivisions of each topic, so as to avoid 
the pitfall of lecturing. Introduce discussions, debates, 
question-boxes, illustrative poems, bits from historical 
novels, reproductions of paintings, make full use of map3, 
charts, diagrams, — in short, bring to bear upon the course 
the resources of modern pedagogy, and you will not need 
professors in theological seminaries to conduct it, but just 
ordinary men and women, who are able to read, to think, 
and to talk. 

Try it, and enjoy a novel Sunday-school sensation. 



XXXI 

A BUDGET OF HINTS 

1. Every Teacher His Own Normal School. 

It is better, of course, to attend a Sunday-school nor- 
mal school or class than to be your own normal school. It 
is a great inspiration to listen to the vigorous and experi- 
enced teacher. You gain new zest from his zeal. You 
learn as much from his way of teaching as from what he 
says. You get as many points, perhaps, from the class 
questions and discussions as from the teacher. Just as 
a wise farmer visits the agricultural fairs, just as a wise 
inventor haunts the patent office, so the wise teacher will 
attend a normal school or a normal class if he can. 

But many cannot. They may live in an isolated com- 
munity. Perhaps they cannot afford the time to go, or 
the money. Perhaps they have no opportunities of the 
kind. 

But let no one despair. Is your sword short? Then 
add a step to it. A little more thought and a little more 
work will put you on a level in this matter with the most 
favored city teacher. 

How? By the faithful use of books and periodicals. 
They bring nowadays within the easy reach of all teach- 
ers the best plans and ideas of the wisest Sunday-school 
workers. They are available in the greatest variety, of 

the finest quality, and at the lowest cost. 

186 



A BUDGET OF HINTS 187 

How may we make such, use of them that they will be 
to us a genuine normal training? 

First, read the available books from cover to cover, and 
the periodicals from first paragraph to last ; at least, read 
enough to make sure of all that applies to your work. 
Get all these printed helps you can. Borrow from other 
teachers or exchange with them. Explore every accessi- 
ble library. 

Whatever you can apply to your work, apply. If it 
cannot be applied fully, then take part of it. If it can- 
not be used as it is given, then change it so that it can be 
used. It is your plan, now, to be adapted precisely to 
your need. 

Do not, without careful thought, take it for granted 
that any suggestion, otherwise valuable, is out of your 
range. It calls for a blackboard, and you have none ? 
Then substitute a pencil tablet. It requires papier mache 
models, and you cannot get the material ? Then substi- 
tute clay or pasteboard, or set the scholars to whittling 
wood. 

Having found a plan you can use, in some shape, then 
read it over and over. Meditate upon it. Set it down 
in your note-book as something you intend to try. Make 
it your own by careful thinking. You must vivify it in 
this way to take the place of the hearing and discussing 
in a normal class. 

Then, plan for an opportunity to put it into operation, 
to make trial of the method, to use the principle. One 
plan a month actually carried out, or one principle really 
adopted thus and incorporated in one's teaching, is far 
more than the average attendant upon a normal class 



188 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

would probably derive from it. And you can easily do 
that much. 

And what you thus get is likely to be more individual 
and vital than what you would get in any other way. 
You have had to put more of yourself into it, and so you 
will get more out of it, for yourself and your scholars and 
for Christ. 

2. Haevested Note-books. 

The use of a note-book can hardly be overdone at a con- 
vention. It is quite impossible for the most active brain 
to seize upon and retain all the good thoughts and useful 
plans that are set forth in any Sunday-school institute or 
similar gathering. To attend such a meeting and not 
write down the portions of what is heard that meet your 
needs is as if a hungry poor man, turned loose in a grocery 
store, should eat what he could swallow on the spot, but 
walk off with nothing under his arms or in his pockets. 

The mere act of writing is a decided aid to the memory. 
Much is gained over unassisted listening if you fill your 
note-book and then never look at it again. As a matter 
of fact, few note-takers do look at their notes again. They 
toss them aside for a more convenient season ; and then, if 
that time ever comes, they find that their notes have 
grown " cold " and unintelligible. 

The wise plan is to harvest your crop of convention 
ideas while it is ripe and before it spoils. As soon as 
possible go over every note that you have made* Write 
out each suggestion fully enough to be clear ever after- 
ward. Place each upon a separate slip of paper, and then 
classify these slips in envelopes suitably inscribed. One 



A BUDGET OF HINTS 189 

envelope will contain illustrations and thoughts on faith; 
another, on obedience; another, on the Bible; another, 
on temperance, and so on. Methods of work may be writ- 
ten in a " plan book," properly indexed — " Review 
Plans," " Blackboard Work," " Object Talks," " Models," 
and the like. 

Finally, to complete the convention so far as you are 
concerned, use all this material as soon as you can. Tell 
the anecdote. Put the method into operation. Intro- 
duce the fact into some lesson. Not till you have so done 
is your note-book harvested and the convention made 
really your own. 

3. Their Own Applications. 

The applications of the lesson theme to daily life 
that your scholars will make will be far better — for 
them — than those that you make. The great problem 
is to get the scholars to make their own applications for 
themselves. 

If you want to bring about this desirable result, in the 
first place you must tell the scholars a week in advance 
just what the central theme of the next lesson is to be; 
and you must tell it so distinctly and brightly that it will 
stick in their minds and impress their imagination. Of 
course, the theme of the lesson will be so expressed by 
you as to come well within the range of the scholars' in- 
terests and experiences; otherwise you could not really 
teach it to them, and they could not be induced to think 
independently about it. 

This subject being thus placed clearly before them, tell 
the scholars to watch during the week for happenings that 



190 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

will illustrate it — events at school or at home, in their 
work and their play. Tell them that you will expect these 
illustrations, and will be disappointed if their sharp eyes 
do not discover some. Then be sure to call for them in 
the next recitation. Probably you will get only one or 
two at first, but make so much of what you get that you 
will receive more. 

You may, at the start, send them to their parents for 
suggestions. This plan will give the parents, if they are 
wise, a fine chance to point the lesson morals and apply 
them to their children's lives. They will become your 
assistants. 

You may send the children to the newspapers for les- 
son applications, if the papers of your town are fit to be 
read by children. They will be full of points for many 
lessons, especially for the temperance lessons. 

Sometimes the children will find lesson applications in 
their storybooks. The characters in these tales are so 
real to the children that what they observe in them will 
answer the purpose quite as well as what they observe in 
living persons. Sometimes they will be able to find poems 
that apply the lesson truths beautifully to life, and copy- 
ing the poems for reading in the class will be a profitable 
exercise for them. 

Of course the teacher will also be on the watch for ap- 
plications from all these sources, that he may stimulate 
his scholars by his own example. 

All this work will be greatly promoted by the forma- 
tion of what you may call " application books," or " daily- 
life books." These will be blank books, one for each 
child, in which every scholar will write out the lesson ap- 



A BUDGET OF HINTS 191 

plications that he himself discovers in any of these ways, 
and also what he considers best of the applications made 
by his comrades. 

The result of the plan, if it is faithfully carried out, 
will certainly be that the young folks will become more 
thoughtful and at the same time more practical. They 
will learn to make that connection between the Bible and 
life which is a large — a very large — part of religion. 

4. A Study Programme. 

The reason why some pupils — most well-intentioned 
pupils — do not prepare their lessons at home is because 
they do not know how to go about it. A little practical 
direction from the teacher will often revolutionize the 
work of his class. 

To this end, it is an admirable plan to prepare a formal 
programme for home study, writing copies of it on slips of 
paper, and giving each pupil a copy. You will, of course, 
go over the programme with the class, and make sure that 
every member understands just what is called for. 

The programme may be something like this : 

1. Eead the Scripture passage last studied, to refresh 
your mind about that lesson. 

2. Read the Scripture intervening between that lesson 
and the new one. Carefully note the course of the nar- 
rative. 

3. Eead the Scripture passage to be studied — the en- 
tire passage — and not merely what is printed in the les- 
son helps. Xote by question marks in the margin every 
point that you do not fully understand. 

4. Eead the notes in your lesson helps, and cross off 



192 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

the question marks as each difficulty is solved. If any 
remains unsolved, look in whatever commentaries you 
have, or other books on the Bible, and try to find a solu- 
tion of the perplexity. 

5. If any places are mentioned in the lesson, find them 
on the map in your Bible, and read what your Bible dic- 
tionary says about them. 

6. If unfamiliar persons are mentioned, or strange cus- 
toms are hinted at, look these up in the Bible dictionary. 

1. Eead all the cross references that occur in the lesson 
(using a reference Bible). Note the bearing of each 
upon the lesson. 

8. If your lesson helps contain questions, answer each 
without referring to any help. Keep this up till you can 
do it perfectly. 

9. Spend some time in getting a clear view of the les- 
son as a whole. Ask yourself what relation it bears to the 
main current of the history you are studying or the book 
of which it is a part. Seek to discover its central teach- 
ing. 

10. Close with asking yourself what lesson this Scrip- 
ture has for you personally, and with an earnest prayer 
that the study may bring forth fruit in your life. 

This programme need not be written out so fully as 
this, but only catch words, such as " 1. Last lesson. 2. 
Intervening passage. 3. New lesson. 4. Notes. 5. 
Places. 6. Persons and customs. 7. Eeferences. 8. 
Questions. 9. Review. 10. Application." The full 
meaning, however, should be explained much as I have 
given it. 

Not every teacher will like this precise order, and it is 



A BUDGET OF HINTS 193 

best that each teacher should form his own programme; 
but some such study programme as this, earnestly pro- 
posed and persistently followed up, will give your scholars 
so plain guidance for their home study that they will be 
encouraged to undertake it, and will delight you, before 
long, with the thoroughness of their preparation. 

5. Something to Do. 

One of the very best ways of obtaining regularity in 
your scholars' attendance is by seeing to it that they have 
some definite work to do when they come. What this 
work is and how it is assigned determine how effective 
it will be toward the end in view. 

The teacher does not need to plan work for all the schol- 
ars, at least for the sake of making them regular attend- 
ants, for some may be counted upon to come. They are 
eliminated from the problem. Usually you will need to 
assign work to only a few scholars, and to these only long 
enough to make them habitual attendants. There are 
other reasons for special assignments of work, however, 
that may lead you to do it for all your scholars, and all 
the time. 

These special assignments are doubly effective in win- 
ning attendance if some honor is attached to them. For 
example, you may appoint one scholar the Class Geogra- 
pher. He will be on hand every Sunday, full of 
importance, for do you not depend on him for map infor- 
mation ? Another may be constituted the Class Archaeolo- 
gist, his field being the peculiar customs of the Bible 
lands, and any other facts about Bible antiquities. 

It is a good plan to divide some task between two 



194 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

scholars, making them jointly responsible for it. They 
may be set, for example, to constructing a chart of the 
Hebrew kings, one to make the northern kingdom half, 
and the other the southern kingdom half, each to explain 
his portion to the class. Both will be sure to be on hand. 

A touch of emulation will aid this method. Several, 
for instance, may be asked to write a three-minute bi- 
ography of Samson, all to be read to the class, and the 
class to vote which is the best. A series of such contests 
lasting for several months will fix the contestants in the 
habit of attendance. This plan, of course, will not be 
tried unless you are quite sure that the scholars will not 
spoil it by jealousy. 

The essential elements of the method are three: a dis- 
tinct, individual task ; the assignment made at least a week 
in advance; the assignment made publicly, so that the 
scholar will know that his comrades will expect him to 
perform the task. Used in this way, with variations in 
the work to keep it novel, the plan will surely better the 
attendance of even the most careless scholar in your class. 

6. The Method of Bible Study That Has Helped 
Me Most. 

I might call it the " glean-everywhere " method or the 
" comprehensive method." 

When I want to learn all I can about a Bible book or 
passage, to teach it in the Sunday school or to write about 
it for Sunday-school workers, I begin by bringing to- 
gether on a convenient shelf or set of shelves (preferably 
my revolving bookcase) everything I can find that bears 



A BUDGET OF HINTS 195 

upon the subject. Books will be there, magazines, papers, 
clippings, written notes. 

There is often a goodly measure of conceit in the advice 
occasionally given, urging Bible students to discard com- 
mentaries and brood over " the Book itself." I will al- 
low no one to exceed my reverence for the Book. It is in- 
deed self -illuminating as is no other book. But not even 
the Bible can bestow upon me the knowledge of a Farrar, 
the insight of a Maclaren. When, sitting down with 
John's Gospel, I open also Farrar's life of Christ and one 
of Alexander Maclaren's commentaries, I am virtually sit- 
ting down with " the Book itself," having provided my- 
self with Farrar's and Maclaren's eyes and brains. 

And so I collect most assiduously whatever printed 
pages throw light upon the Word. Of the standard com- 
mentaries, I am especially fond of the Cambridge Bible, 
the Expositor's, Westcott's, the Speaker's, and the new 
Century Bible. I use — but with many a protest — the 
International Critical Commentary. Butler's Bible 
Work is a good eclectic, and Parker's People's Bible is 
always stimulating. I buy every book I can find — and 
afford — on Bible geography, believing that to be one of 
the greatest aids to an understanding of Scripture. The 
Bible dictionary — Hastings's and Davis's — is ever at 
hand. Bible biographies enter, whenever they touch the 
portion I am studying: the lives of Christ by Farrar, 
Edersheim, Geikie, Hanna, Beecher, Bhees, Barton, Daw- 
son, " Ian Maclaren," and others ; the " Men of the Bi- 
ble " series, and many more. Then there are Bible mono- 
graphs, on special books, such as Genung or Peloubet on 
Job and Mitchell on Amos, or on special themes, such as 



196 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

'Bible prayers, Bible women, Bible mountains. Finally, 
I have picked up (dirt cheap at second-band stores, most 
of them) a fine library of volumes of sermons — Trench, 
South, Finney, Spurgeon, Chalmers, Payson, Maurice, 
Robinson, Brooks and others. Indexed, these rescued 
books furnish me a rich mine of Bible comments. 

When, then, I set out to study the Bible, it is more 
than I that study it. I advance as a phalanx. I have 
become a theological faculty. Not my poor, blundering 
mind alone — • but I can concentrate upon that particular 
part of the Bible the brightest and wisest minds that have 
thought upon it. 

How the passage glows with meaning and pulses with 
power as my eye passes down page after page of illumina- 
ting comment! Sometimes I take notes as I read; some- 
times I merely mark the margins of my books or under- 
score the Bible words here and there as reminders; it 
depends upon the use I am to make of my study. The only 
point I care to insist upon is the fullness of council I call 
to my aid. 

I am convinced that there is far too little use, even in 
this day, of Bible-study helps. They cost little; my own 
library is very full, but it has not been nearly so ex- 
pensive as cigars would have been. And it has paid for 
itself many times over. 

The reading of books about the Bible leads to the in- 
creased reading of the Bible. Indeed, if the books about 
the Bible are the best books of the kind, they send you 
to the Bible, they require large blocks of Bible-reading 
for their fullest enjoyment. The Bible comes close to 
all men, it is the only universal book; and yet it is the 



A BUDGET OF HINTS 197 

literary product of an Asiatic people, and of an ancient 
time. Its customs, history, language, even its modes of 
thought, require interpretation. Its universality lies in 
its perfect adaptability to all men after it is translated. 

For many reasons, then, I urge young people, who are 
laying the foundations of their libraries, and all Sunday- 
school teachers, to buy books that will shed light on the 
Bible. And if all Christians should specialize in Bible 
study of this sort, it would be well, though the latest maga- 
zine had to go uncut and the latest novel unread. 



// 



XXXII 

GOOD CHEER FOR DISCOURAGED TEACHERS 

It is very easy for a Sunday-school teacher to become 
discouraged. He has less than an hour in which to offset 
a thousand evil influences that have been at work on his 
scholars for a whole week. His task is the making of 
character, and there is no more difficult task. For this 
great work he is conscious that he has inadequate ability. 
He compares his high ideals with his low achievement. 
He works hard, but wins little appreciation. In short, 
just as a big wave is followed by a big trough which is 
a necessary part of a big wave, so a lofty task means a 
deep discouragement, sometimes and often. The Sun- 
day-school teacher must expect these periods of despond- 
ency. In a way, they are certificates of the grandeur 
of his work, and to expect them is to be partly armed 
against them. 

But there are many other considerations that should be 
kept in mind. Every teacher should maintain a whole 
armory of weapons that are efficient against gloom. These 
weapons he should often polish, and keep them bright and 
sharp. 

One of these weapons in the teacher's armory of good 
cheer is faith in himself. Let him bear in mind his suc- 
cesses rather than his failures, and frequently review them 

for his encouragement and stimulus. It is well to make 

198 



GOOD CHEER FOR DISCOURAGED TEACHERS 199 

a list of them. Set down the kind words said about 
your work. Set down the token that this scholar, at least, 
loves you. Set down the improvement made by another 
scholar. Set down any evidence of gain. Label the rec- 
ord, " Lest I forget." Believe that what you have done 
for one you can do for another, and what you have done 
once you can do again. Have faith in yourself. 

And have faith in your scholars also. Magnify their 
good points; they are more than you realize. Children 
are afraid to show their best side, their deepest nature. 
Minimize their bad points; they are not so bad as they 
appear; often they are only seeming, and are caused 
rather by unfortunate circumstances than by inherent de- 
pravity. Judge your scholars not by what they are in 
the class, but by what they are when alone with you, and 
when they have every chance to show their real characters. 
Have faith in your scholars. 

Most of all, have faith in God. It is His work, this 
Sunday-school teaching, and not yours. Let Him con- 
duct His work. Be sure that He will, if you will let 
Him, if you interpose against His power no barrier of 
conceit or pride or self-will. Yield yourself as His ready, 
humble instrument, and throw upon Him all responsibility 
for results. 

Of course this means that you will have faith in prayer. 
You will believe in prayer, not merely as a means of get- 
ting your mind in the right condition, but far more as a 
means of obtaining definite things from God — things 
that would not come about otherwise. A Sunday-school 
teacher without a practical belief in the supernatural is 
sure, sooner or later, to be a miserable failure. 



200 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

But don't lay down conditions when you pray ; don't dic- 
tate to the Almighty. Pray for certain results which you 
know are in harmony with God's will, but not for certain 
means and methods which may be His way or may not be. 
Pray that this scholar may surrender to Christ, that an- 
other scholar may conquer a bad habit, that a third 
scholar may become a lover of the Book — all this in any 
way that God sees best ; through your failures and discom- 
fiture, if that is best; but that it may certainly come 
about. 

Convert your very defects into arguments of grace. 
You are not learned ? or eloquent ? or beautiful ? or win- 
some ? If you were, how easily you might come to rely 
on those qualities, and then you would surely and sadly 
fail! But the very lack of these fine things will drive 
you to lay hold on God, in whom alone is efficiency. If 
you have them, receive them with joy but with trem- 
bling. If you have them not, still rejoice that you have 
God, who is better and stronger than any power He can 
bestow upon His creatures. 

Practise the patience of God. Live in the long years 
and not in the short days. In other words, do not be 
disappointed if you do not get immediate results from 
your teaching. " Rome was not built in a day," and a 
child's character is a greater city than Rome ever was. 
In all your work look far forward and expect the fruitage 
confidently there. 

If the children appear ungrateful and unappreciative, 
remember that few children wear their hearts on their 
sleeves. Boys, especially, are young Indians, seeking to 



GOOD CHEER FOR DISCOURAGED TEACHERS 201 

suppress their nobler emotions rather than exhibit them. 
Remember how little manifestation of gratitude and ap- 
preciation there is even in the grown-ups, and be content 
with a very slight expression of these feelings in young 
folks. That little undoubtedly means much more that is 
concealed. 

The Bible is a book of good cheer. When you are dis- 
couraged, Bible teachers, turn at once to its sunshiny 
pages. How full they are of words for that very time ! 
— promises of the return of bread cast on the waters, 
that God's Word shall not return void, that the good seed 
will bring forth sixty and one hundredfold! Every 
teacher will do well to make a little collection of these 
comforting assurances, copy them into a special book, com- 
mit them to memory, and repeat them whenever the dark 
clouds rise above his mental horizon. God's Word is a 
sun, and it will scatter clouds. 

If teaching is hard work for you, if it is not a " natu- 
ral gift," if you envy the easy successes of " born teach- 
ers," there is one thought that should give you cheer: 
Your very effort under evident difficulties is quite certain 
in the end to impress your scholars more than the ready 
triumphs of more brilliant teachers. They may be teach- 
ing for their own glory or their own pleasure, but it is 
manifest that this is not true of you. You, very plainly, 
are impelled only by a sense of duty and by a great desire 
for the good of your scholars, and the understanding of 
this will grow upon your class in spite of your frequent 
seeming failures, and even because of them. This is not 
to say that failures are to be sought; that kind of failure 



202 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

would bring only scorn. But the failures that come "while 
we are doing our best are often transformed by God's 
Holy Spirit into the most substantial of successes. 

You will need will-power when the discouragements 
come. Confidence is half the battle. That is why Na- 
poleon went raging through Europe, kingdom after king- 
dom falling before him: because he had no other thought 
than that they would fall. Learn how to clinch the teeth 
of your soul. Learn how to say to the devil of discour- 
agement, " Get thee behind me, Satan ! " A dogged de- 
termination is not grace, but it is a pretty fair substitute 
for it on a pinch. 

If you are discouraged about a scholar, it will usually 
relieve you to talk with others that have to do with him. 
Generally you will find that they are having as hard a 
time as you are, and very likely a harder time. Talk 
with his parents, his other relatives, his school-teacher, 
his employer. Such a conversation is quite certain to re- 
inforce your courage and your patience. 

Look at your teaching problems on all sides. The 
scholars are inattentive ? But you are sure that they love 
you. They are mischievous ? But the class next them is 
mischievous, and that spirit is contagious. They are rest- 
less ? But the schoolroom is wretchedly ventilated. In 
this way balance one fact against another, and the re- 
sultant will not be very depressing. Take wide views; 
they are always more cheerful than narrow ones. 

When you are worried about your Sunday-school teach- 
ing, plan and carry out some good time with your schol- 
ars. Take a long, woodsy walk with them. Get up a 
picnic for them. Give them a little party. Take them 



GOOD CHEER FOR DISCOURAGED TEACHERS 203 

with you to visit some interesting museum, or to see and 
hear a stereopticon lecture. Pleasures enjoyed together 
will knit your scholars to you. Jolly times together will 
dissipate the gloom that has come over your teaching. 

Or, if you are " blue " about your teaching, try the 
stimulus of a new plan. Activity is an admirable cure 
for despondency. Ruts are long depressions, and are al- 
ways depressing. When you feel downcast, get a substi- 
tute some Sunday, and go to another school for fresh ideas. 
Or, take up some periodical or book that will give you 
new ways of working. Choose one of them, and put it 
into operation with all the zeal and vivacity you can mus- 
ter. Do something different, and, my word for it, you 
will come into a different and a more cheerful mood. 

Often a frank talk with the scholar or the scholars about 
whom you are troubled will remove your perplexities, or 
at least greatly lessen them. Go to those scholars w r ith a 
clear statement of your hope for them and your motive in 
teaching the class, and show them in what way you find 
them failing to respond. Then ask for the reasons, that 
you may work with them to remove whatever hindrances 
may be in the way of their cooperation with you to those 
great ends. Put it solely with a view to their own wel- 
fare and progress. Leave yourself, your feelings and 
labors, out of account. In almost every case you will re- 
ceive a response that will surprise you, and will make 
plain sailing for you in that quarter for a long time to 
come. 

After all, the best cure for discouragement, that on 
which you can rely most confidently, is to live for God and 
not man, His rewards and not the world's, His wisdom 



204 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

and not your own planning, and the results which He 
ordains. Let God be your faith and your courage. Just 
keep moving. Just think of your work and of Him, not 
of your failures and your feelings. Acquiesce in your 
discouragement, if you must, but plod ahead. If you 
work steadily for Him, He will give you courage out of 
all discouragement; and even if He does not, He will do 
better than that: He will give you your work, and He 
will give you Himself. 



XXXIII 

A PLEASANT SCHOOLROOM 

If we want to keep the children at home, we must make 
home pleasant. If we want to keep the children in the 
Sunday school, that also must be made pleasant. 

On visiting certain Sunday schools, the wonder to me 
has not been that so few attended, but that any were there 
at all. Dark rooms, generally basement rooms; musty 
smells; stiff benches, crowded together; bare walls, 
adorned with a begrimed map of the Holy Land; a 
wheezy organ; a threadbare carpet — ■ these are the prin- 
cipal elements of the picture. What a bait for Bible- 
study ! 

On the other hand, of course, I have seen many schools 
that are quite the reverse of all this. They are so charm- 
ing that one is captured at the first glance, and drawn 
into their delightful atmosphere. From such schoolrooms 
the scholars are little likely to stray, even when they reach 
their most independent teens. Moreover, such rooms are 
within the reach of all churches, even the poorest, since 
the elements of their attractiveness are not at all costly 
or difficult of access. Let me name them, with a few sug- 
gestions regarding each. 

First in any enumeration of the requirements of a 

pleasant schoolroom I should place good air. If the air 

is stuffy, damp, too hot or too cold, the brightest teaching 

205 



206 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

will contend in vain against the pervasive discomfort. 
The most intelligent children will be stupid, the best- 
natured teachers will wax cross, and the headaches car- 
ried from the room will go far to erase whatever good is 
done there. 

Basement rooms, where so many of our Sunday schools 
must be held, especially in the older churches, are very 
difficult to ventilate. Often the windows could be en- 
larged, laterally and vertically, and the soil sloped away 
in front so as to admit much more light and air. When 
that is impossible, at least the windows may be furnished 
with strips of wood perforated for ventilation, or, still 
better, with long panes of glass fastened to the sill and 
slanting inward, so that the windows may be raised with- 
out causing a draught; and these glass ventilators do not 
obstruct the light. 

Whatever else is done, the janitor should air the room 
thoroughly for hours before the opening of the school. 
Then, if the air is bad just before the lesson is taken up, 
open the windows again while the children rise and sing, 
and give them some oxygen on which the lesson truths may 
catch fire. A squad of boys (the most restless ones) may 
be made responsible for conducting this operation. Dub 
them the Ventilating Brigade. 

The dampness of most basement rooms, and of some 
on the ground level, is to be remedied in part by this 
vigorous admission of air, and in part by the use of fire. 
Kerosene stoves are good for this purpose, being portable, 
inexpensive, tidy, and effective. There are kinds that do 
not emit a bad odor. 

Second only to the matter of pure air, if one would 



A PLEASANT SCHOOLROOM 20? 

Lave a pleasant schoolroom, is the matter of light. To 
say nothing of the good cheer that sunshine so masterfully 
imparts, it is needed to purify the air. Then, too, the 
print of the children's Bibles is usually fine — distress- 
ingly and perilously fine — and the type of lesson helps 
is necessarily condensed. For the sake of the children's 
eyes, we need all the light we can get. 

I have already spoken of the possibility, in a basement 
room, of cutting down the windows. The glass should 
be clear, and never the abominations of cheap colored 
glass that turn into crypts some Sunday-school rooms I 
wot of. Ribbed glass, however, is good, because it dis- 
tributes the light evenly through the room. Mirrors 
placed at the right angle outside will contribute much to 
brighten the interior. If partitions are used to form 
classrooms, they should be constructed entirely of ribbed 
glass. 

There is no worthy substitute for God's own sunlight; 
but if these suggestions are inapplicable, you can, at any 
rate, turn to artificial lighting — to kerosene, gas, or elec- 
tricity. Use plenty of it, if you must use it at all. 
Don't try to economize in children's eyes. 

Pictures are another essential for a pleasant Sunday- 
school room. Nowadays they may be obtained at so lit- 
tle cost, and of so great beauty, that there is really no 
excuse for not using them freely in our Sunday-school 
work. Almost all parts of the Bible may be illustrated 
by charming half-tone prints, many of them reproductions 
of famous paintings, and the price is from half a cent to 
two cents each. 

These pictures are too small to be seen well at a dis- 



208 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

tance, though a frieze of them fastened to the wall at the 
children's height, between narrow strips of wood, is a 
very attractive feature of at least one schoolroom I know. 
But for a few cents more, averaging ten cents, one may 
buy large and exquisite reproductions of great paintings 
of Scripture scenes, and these are sometimes finely col- 
ored. Views of Bible landscapes are also obtainable, and 
add much to the scholars' sense of the reality of the les- 
sons. 

With the exception of the frieze just suggested, I do 
not think it wise to keep many pictures on the wall at a 
time. Use few, perhaps no more than one, and change 
them frequently, as the lessons change. It is an admira- 
ble plan to get a few frames with glass fronts and mov- 
able backs, in which these pictures may be exhibited, a 
new one every Sabbath. 

When a picture is placed on the wall, a word should 
be said about it to the school. Tell what it is, and give 
the name of the artist, adding any other fact that may 
contribute to the interest. 

Fine paintings and engravings that would illustrate the 
lessons are doubtless to be found in some homes of the 
congregation. Let it be known that the loan of these 
for a Sunday at a time would be very acceptable, and 
doubtless they will be forthcoming. Much more can be 
done with pictures to add to the pleasantness of the school, 
and when you once begin the work, new methods will con- 
stantly suggest themselves to you. 

In addition to pictures, flowers make a delightful adorn- 
ing for a Sunday-school room. Indeed, plants of all kinds 
are useful — a palm, or a rubber plant, if you have room 



A PLEASANT SCHOOLROOM 209 

for it in a corner; branches of autumn leaves; a vine 
trained around a window or carried over the superin- 
tendent's stand ; and, especially, growing plants in pots. 

In obtaining the latter, use the aid of the children. 
Give them each a bulb to grow at home and bring to the 
school when it has blossomed. A Bible picture may re- 
ward the best blossom obtained. A special exhibition 
may be made some Sunday of all the bulbs that are in 
flower, and thus the school may get a little pleasant ad- 
vertising. At another time packages of flower-seed may 
be given to the children, that Sunday-school flower-beds 
may be made all over town and tended by the young folks, 
with the result of an abundance of cut flowers for the 
school. Here, too, a happy stimulus may be given by the 
offer of a reward for the best-kept and most prolific bed. 

A flower committee would be a useful Sunday-school 
adjunct. This committee would oversee all these mat- 
ters, and in addition would take the cut flowers, after use 
in the school, to the scholars that are sick, adding to each 
bouquet a cheery message. The committee will pay espe- 
cial attention to the schoolroom on anniversaries — Rally 
Day, Children's Day, and the like — and to it might be 
entrusted the general decoration of the room. 

Do not get into ruts here or anywhere else. A suitable 
statue may be borrowed now and then and shown for a 
Sunday. A canary may be brought in — why not? — 
to brighten up some session. A transparency may be 
placed in a window. Use in beautifying the schoolroom 
the same thoughtful ingenuity you show in your homes. 

The home air is the ideal we are to keep ahead of us. 
A shelf of books; a nice case for the library, with glass 



210 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

doors; vases here and there for the flowers the children 
will bring; a bright carpet or rugs; a piano and not an 
organ; maps rolled up in a case, and not stretched out to 
fill the wall space and gather dust; a flexible blackboard 
also, rolled up out of the way when it is not in use ; chairs, 
rather than benches, grouped interestingly around little 
tables with drawers in them — these are items in my pic- 
ture of a pleasant Sunday-school room. 

Of course, if you must use the main auditorium of the 
church, some of these suggestions are inapplicable. In- 
genuity and determination, However, will win many vic- 
tories even here. It is quite possible to have sockets over 
the auditorium in which poles may be rapidly set, wires 
swiftly hooked to the poles, curtains speedily hooked over 
the wires, and — • presto ! — you have divided the great, 
yawning space into twenty or thirty of the cosiest class- 
rooms imaginable. Each class may erect its own taber- 
nacle, and then upon its swaying walls may be hung the 
map and pictures for the day's lesson. The transforma- 
tion need occupy only a minute or two. 

In all this work of making the Sunday-school room 
pleasant, get the children's help, as you will obtain their 
aid with the flowers. They may be interested to collect 
pictures illustrating the Bible. The older classes may 
passe-partout the best of the pictures that are contributed. 
One class each Sunday may contribute an illumination 
of the Golden Text to hang upon the wall. Other bits of 
children's work may be exhibited from time to time, such 
as the maps and diagrams they will make. If the schol- 
ars have a hand in adorning the room, its pleasantness 
will be doubly pleasant to them. 



A PLEASANT SCHOOLROOM 211 

" The beauty of holiness ! " — ■ that is a phrase never to 
be forgotten. Our religion must be attractive, or it is 
hardly religion. Because of it the office and the home, 
the city streets and public buildings, our persons and at- 
tire, are all to be more beautiful. Certainly, then, the 
most charming places in any town should be those places 
where men, women and children gather to learn of the 
beauty of holiness, and to carry it forth into beautiful 
lives. 



XXXIV 

LARGE AFFAIRS IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Let us deal with big themes in the Sunday school! 
Large subjects are not inappropriate to little people. 
They will teach the scholars to take wide views. They 
will show them that religion has broad relations and an 
extensive influence, that it is molding nations, that it is 
making history, that it is to be counted among the vast 
world-forces. In every way it will lift the school above 
pettiness, dignify it, and add to its interest and power, 
if now and then, at the desk and in the class, the largest 
possible themes are handled. 

Of course, I do not mean that the school should grow 
unpractical, or cease to deal fully and effectively with the 
small interests of daily life. That needs not to be said. 
Let that be taken for granted throughout this chapter. 

These larger affairs, the affairs of the church at large 
and of the great world, as distinguished from the local 
church and its little world, will not be brought into the 
school to any considerable extent except as the result of a 
wise plan persistently followed. I suggest the appoint- 
ment of one person or of several, whose business shall be 
this very work. The distinguishing title might be, " The 
Committee on the Kingdom " ; or, if this seems too pre- 
tentious, he (or they) might simply be called " reporter " 
or " reporters." This committee, to maintain freshness 
of zeal, should be appointed anew once a quarter. It is 

212 



LARGE AFFAIRS IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 213 

not necessary that they should be walking encyclopaedias, 
but merely common folks, who are willing to learn, and 
able to tell others briefly and interestingly what they have 
learned. 

The business of such a committee would be to keep 
large interests to the fore in the school — the interests 
of the denomination, of Christendom, of the wide world. 
It will be enough if they introduce, at each session, a 
single point of wide importance; more would confuse. 
To do this wisely, a schedule should be formed as far 
in advance as possible, for when you begin the work, 
you will be surprised to see how many matters press for 
mention. 

Most school sessions are crowded already, and proba- 
bly not more than two minutes can be assigned for the 
Committee on the Kingdom (or the " reporters "). 
Very well; let them make those two minutes shine. Do 
not spend a second of the time in moralizing, in applying 
to the lesson the details you are presenting. Let the 
teachers do that. " This one thing I do," must be 
the motto of speakers with strictly limited time; and the 
" one thing " of the Committee on the Kingdom is to 
get firmly lodged in the heads of the children simply 
one fact of large scope at each session. 

I should begin with a series of lessons about the par- 
ticular denomination to which the school belongs. 

Lesson ~No. 1: What is its name, and what does that 
name signify ? 

2. When did the denomination begin ? (At each ses- 
sion the preceding lessons will be reviewed, as far back 
as possible.) 



214 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

3. Where did the denomination begin ? 

4. Under what circumstances ? 

5. The most important events in the history of the 
denomination (three will be enough). 

6. The three greatest men the denomination has given 
to the world. 

7. The leading principles of the denomination. This 
topic may well occupy several Sundays, and, indeed, a 
whole new series may be built up here, taking only one 
principle a Sunday. 

8. The organization of the denomination. Here also 
we have a topic that will make an extended series of 
lessons. Take up first the local church, and show its 
organization -*- the pastorate, the church officers, the chief 
points of procedure. Then pass to the church body next 
larger — presbytery, conference, and the like. Go on to 
the next body, the synod, state conference, and so forth. 
Then end with the national and international bodies — 
General Conference, General Assembly, National Coun- 
cil, etc. 

9. Another topic upon which a series of lessons may 
be based is the boards and societies of the denomination 
— the various missionary organizations, the national Sun- 
day-school society, the publication department, with its 
leading publications, the boards of ministerial relief, of 
church erection, of evangelization, and so on. One Sun- 
day will be given to each of these. 

10. Finally, you may make an excursion, as extensive 
as may be, among the other denominations. These must 
be presented in groups rather than in detail, there are 
so many; but certainly the scholars should be given some 



LARGE AFFAIRS IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 215 

idea of the great Christian army of which their denomi- 
nation is only one division. 

In this brief summary I have suggested material for 
several years. And when the whole has been reviewed, 
it will be well to begin again and do the same thing for 
the new set of scholars that has entered. 

But this is too much along one line to carry out the 
full idea with which we started. The denominational 
series must be broken in upon continually. I have sug- 
gested, indeed, ten separate topics, and they may well 
be treated on ten separate occasions, with longer or shorter 
intervals coming between. A series like that upon the 
principles of the denomination should move along with 
very little interruption, but many of these points, if you 
are faithful to the reviews, may be taken up without very 
close adherence to the unbroken order I have indicated. 

When the principles of the denomination are taken up, 
a catechism may be profitably used. Printed or type- 
written copies of each question and answer may be given 
to the scholars, that they may commit them to memory. 
If a two-minute talk is given to each question a week 
before it is to be committed to memory with the answer 
and recited, the memory work will be comparatively easy. 
The cooperation of the parents will be obtained by a 
notice from the pulpit, and the teachers will doubtless be 
glad to lend a hand with a few questions and answers in 
the classes. 

Another matter to which this Committee on the King- 
dom should attend is the school missionary offerings. In 
no way can the scholars be better interested in the large 
affairs of the church than by giving money to them every 



216 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

week. The most progressive Sunday schools select a dif- 
ferent object for their gifts every month. In choosing 
these objects, the needs and desires of the denomination 
are always to be given first consideration, though occa- 
sionally it is wise to introduce outside causes. 

Whatever the object for the month may be, it is set 
forth at the beginning of the month with a full explana- 
tion, or an explanation as full as time will permit. This 
may be made by the Committee on the Kingdom, who 
will, moreover, keep a notice of the object in large letters 
standing before the school during the month. Brief ref- 
erences should be made to it now and then, with announce- 
ments as to how the money is coming in. The teachers 
should be informed regarding it at the teachers' meeting. 
And then, after the gift has been made and sent off, 
whatever acknowledgment comes should be passed on to 
the school in some bright way, that the scholars may feel 
how much they are really accomplishing. 

The Methodist Sunday schools have a wise plan. Each 
school is a missionary society, regularly organized under 
the denominational authorities, and their annual meeting 
in that capacity is made a memorable occasion. Some- 
thing analogous to this may be carried out in every school 
of every denomination. 

And especially when the denomination makes an appeal 
to its Sunday schools for money — as, for example, the 
American Board of the Cougregationalists has several 
times appealed for ten-cent subscriptions for the mission- 
ary steamer, the Morning Star, — then a prompt and full 
response should be made a point of honor. 

Still another matter of denominational importance 



LARGE AFFAIRS IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 217 

which the Committee on the Kingdom should have in 
charge is the arousing of interest in great denominational 
gatherings — the meetings of the national bodies of the 
church, and of the missionary societies. Notice should 
be given of these, their purposes should be explained to 
the children, prayer should be made for them beforehand, 
and something interesting should be told about them after 
they have been held. 

All that has been said about the affairs of the denomi- 
nation and the ways of introducing them to the school 
applies to the still larger affairs of the Church Universal. 
Great meetings of the brotherhood of churches should be 
brought to the attention of our Sunday schools — meet- 
ings like the Ecumenical Missionary Conference and the 
Inter-Church Conference on Federation. In the same 
way mention should be made of any great event that has 
a distinct bearing on the life and work of the church at 
large, such as the Armenian and Boxer massacres, the 
Congo atrocities, the proclamation of religious liberty in 
Eussia and the similar happenings in South America, 
the deaths of Miss Willard and Sir George Williams. 
'Nor should the Committee on the Kingdom ignore the 
striking events of secular history that may have hap- 
pened during the past week, especially if, as is often the 
case, something in the current lesson applies directly to 
the matter. 

In short, not to multiply illustrations needlessly, what 
is desired to put the Sunday school in touch with the 
great Christian activities of the world, and enlarge in 
every way the children's idea of the church. Such an 
endeavor cannot fail to be inspiring. It must quicken 



218 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

the interest in the study of that Book which lies at the 
heart of it all, it must increase the scholars' pride in the 
great name of Christian, and it must help to prepare them 
for entering upon the adult work of the church with an 
enthusiastic sense of its importance and possibilities. 
And any one of these gains would amply repay all it 
costs. 



XXXV 

SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIALS 

The church holds socials. The young people's society 
holds socials. Why should the Sunday school indulge 
in them? 

For two reasons : because the Sunday school is a differ- 
ent set of persons, that should be bound together by social 
ties; and because Sunday-school socials should be con- 
ducted in unique ways, having a character all their own, 
and aiming at distinctive results. How that may be, I 
shall try to show in this chapter. 

How often should Sunday schools hold socials ? As 
often as they can be held successfully without interfering 
with the other social interests of the church and the home. 
Often enough, certainly, to unite the school by this pleas- 
ant bond, and brighten its atmosphere with the sunshine 
of good fellowship. Perhaps once a quarter will be the 
right frequency under average conditions. 

Where should Sunday-school socials be held? Ordina- 
rily, in the Sunday-school room or rooms, where there is 
no vestry or similar appendage to the church. Many 
schools, however, must meet in the church auditorium, 
and there exists a well-grounded prejudice against games 
and other amusements in that sacred place. 

Under such circumstances a hall may be rented for 
the social, or, far better, if the school is small, the social 

219 



220 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

may be held in a private house. Even if the school is 
large, home socials may be successfully managed if the 
school is divided into sections, of congenial ages, a section 
to a house. 

When the weather permits, hold an occasional social 
outdoors, on some pretty lawn, or in the woods. Many 
delightful games, impossible for the house, are appropriate 
for such surroundings. 

Who should conduct the Sunday-school socials ? Never 
the superintendent. He has burdens enough without add- 
ing this. Perhaps your young people's society will be 
glad to undertake the work, with its social and Sunday- 
school committees. If not, appoint a social committee 
from the school itself, with a chairman who is a genius 
at planning such affairs, and a general at carrying out 
his (or her) plans. 

Make the committee so large that the task will not rest 
too heavily on any shoulders. Divide the work into as 
many parts as you have committee members, and make 
each member responsible for his share of the undertaking. 
One, for example, will see to the games, or to only one 
game. Another will advertise the social. A third will 
see to the refreshments. 

The advertising, by the way, is no slight factor in the 
success of your social (I am a newspaper man). This 
advertising should be done in many ways — by pulpit and 
desk notices, by the blackboard indoors and placards out- 
side, by cards of invitation, by the mail, by posters, hand- 
bills, the newspapers. Best of all, set people talking 
about the social. 

To that end, get an interesting feature to advertise. 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIALS 221 

Give the social an alluring and appropriate name. For 
example, to divulge the first idea that pops into my head, 
a " potato social/' with potato races, contests in potato- 
paring, a historical and agricultural talk about the po- 
tato, a contest in potato-carving, and refreshments con- 
sisting of potatoes cooked in all sorts of ways. Some 
artistic scholar will adorn all notices of this social with 
drawings of the popular tuber. Half the work is done 
when you have hit upon some novel idea upon which to 
base your plans for the evening. 

How shall we obtain a large attendance upon the so- 
cials ? Invite the strangers. Appoint a committee whose 
sole duty it will be to do this. Give a reward to the 
class that brings the largest number of strangers, and 
another reward to the class that has present the largest 
proportion of its members. Announce these rewards as 
one of the features of the social. Best of all, get up so- 
cials worth attending, and your only problem will be to 
take care of the crowds. 

Among the preparations upon which much thought 
should be spent is the adornment of the room or rooms 
in which you will meet. It pays to make pretty and 
even elaborate decorations. If you have refreshments, 
use taste in the arrangement of flowers, vines, and tissue 
paper. Bring in a few rocking-chairs, parlor tables, and 
good pictures, to give the home air to the place. All 
this indicates the importance you attach to the occasion, 
and others also will begin to regard it as something worth 
while. 

It is a matter of considerable importance that you be- 
gin promptly. All well-managed socials run by schedule. 



222 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

There is a carefully-planned programme, with the times 
for everything carefully estimated, and all written down 
with exactness. Leave no gaps wherein awkwardness may 
gather. 

Especially, provide some lively amusement at the very 
start — some interesting occupation into which each new- 
comer may be drawn as soon as he arrives. If you do 
not do this, but allow a half hour or an hour of " standing 
around " before the social really begins, you have made 
its failure quite certain. 

Keep things moving. Pass briskly from one game to 
another. Make the transition with decision and with 
leadership, so as to swing the crowd with you. It is the 
easiest thing in the world for a social to " go to pieces " 
and become disorganized, if no master hand holds it to- 
gether. 

And then, do not let the social fray out at the end. 
Fix the time for closing, and let it be known. Provide 
some especially attractive feature for the close, and let 
that be known. When this last amusement is out of the 
way, sing some familiar song and let the pastor pronounce 
the benediction. In this way you will give to the social 
the air of a finished product. 

Many of the plans I shall suggest may add to their 
attractiveness in the minds of a portion of your company 
by the giving of prizes or rewards for success in the 
games. If you approve of such incentives to zealous par- 
ticipation, keep them simple and inexpensive. Whatever 
is used should be appropriate for the use of a Sunday 
school, such as some picture of a scene in Palestine, or 
some Scripture portion. The presentation of these re- 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIALS 223 

wards by your best speakers will add an interesting ele- 
ment to the social. 

Sometimes it will be well to recognize the age divisions 
in planning for socials. Indeed, it is very difficult to 
plan an entertainment for children and adults at the same 
time. Separate socials may be held for the older scholars, 
the intermediate department, and the primary classes. If 
you have a home department, that also should have a social 
once a year, and one purpose of the evening will be to 
draw into the main school as many of the home depart- 
ment as may be. Occasionally one division of the school 
may give a social to another division, as the adults to the 
primary department, or even the primary department to 
the adults. 

So far as possible, utilize current interests in planning 
these socials. For example, if Washington's birthday is 
near at hand, let the social be patriotic in its tone, the 
walls hung with nags and with portraits of national he- 
roes, pasteboard hatchets being given each to wear, Wash- 
ington's farewell address being read, poems about the 
Father of his Country being recited, scenes in his life 
being illustrated by shadow pictures, and patriotic songs 
being sung. In the same way attach the social to other 
special times and seasons. 

I have said that a Sunday-school social should, when- 
ever possible, be given a character of its own. It should 
be plainly allied, in some way, to the work of the school, 
to Bible study. Something peculiarly appropriate to the 
great aims of the school may be introduced at each social. 
For instance, at your Washington social you may pass 
around slips of paper and pencils, requiring each person 



224 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

to write some Bible quotation that he considers especially 
fitting the character of our first President. A committee 
will examine these, and reward in some way the writer 
of the most appropriate. 

There are many Bible games, to be found in any store 
that deals in games at all. Some evening you might place 
these on a number of little tables, divide the company 
into groups, and send each group to a table to play the 
game that is there. At a signal, they may move to the 
next tables, and so each group will play all the games in 
rotation. 

" Clumps " may be played with Bible characters or 
things mentioned in the Bible. The company is divided 
into two parties, each of which sends a representative 
from the room. These two agree on something from the 
Bible, and then return, the one that came from one 
group going to the other group, there to be quizzed in 
questions that can be answered solely by yes or no. The 
side that first discovers the secret announces the fact by 
hand-clapping, and retains both representatives. Thus 
the game proceeds, new persons being sent out each time. 

Bible anagrams are always good. The social commit- 
tee has a pile of letter cards. Each person present goes 
to the committee and whispers the spelling of a Bible 
proper name. If the spelling is correct, and the name 
is one that all should know, he is supplied with the letters 
that spell it. Those letters he then jumbles up, and 
places them on a sheet of paper, at the head of which he 
writes his name. Then everybody exchanges anagrams 
with somebody else, and they puzzle over them until one 
has solved his anagram. He then scores himself one, 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIALS 225 

they exchange anagrams back again, and pass on to at- 
tempt the anagrams of others. The one that has deci- 
phered the largest number of anagrams by the end of the 
time assigned is hailed as victor in the contest. 

Bible charades might be presented, the various syllables 
of the name of some Scripture personage, followed by a 
scene from his life to represent the whole name. 

Shadow pictures might be given, setting forth Bible 
scenes, if you are careful to avoid exaggeration. These 
might be repeated until they are guessed. 

You may profitably base an entire evening's pleasure 
upon Bible geography. There are many memory tests 
that will prove to be pleasant diversions. For one, ar- 
range the company in two lines, facing each other. Let 
the leader of one line give the name of some Bible locality 
beginning with A. Before the umpire counts ten, the 
leader of the other side gives another place. So it passes 
down the lines, each person unable to give a name falling 
out, until only one is left. Then the lines are formed 
again for B, and so on through the alphabet, the one with 
most letters to his credit being adjudged the victor. 

Another memory test is the following: Supply each, 
person with an outline map of Palestine, worked off on 
a duplicator. The leader will dictate a list of prominent 
cities, rivers, and mountains, which must be located on 
the maps. Figures will be used; that is, the leader will 
call out, " Mount Hermon, 21," and all must place " 21 " 
on the part of the map where they think Mount Hermon 
to be. 

Geographical enigmas may be given out, and there is a 
wide range of Bible puzzles based on geography. Essays 



226 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

on interesting Bible localities may be read. Talks may 
be given by travelers. Palestine curios may be shown. 
Photographs and other pictures of Palestine scenes may 
be exhibited on the wall, on tables, or by the stereopticon. 
In short, there is scarcely any limit to the ways in which 
a wide-awake committee may cause Bible geography to 
furnish an evening's enjoyment. 

And Bible geography is only one of a large number of 
interests that may be laid under contribution. Take the 
artistic interest, and plan an evening with Bible art. To 
lighten it up, set the company to molding Bible animals 
from clay, each piece or " sculpture " to be numbered, 
and some reward to be given to the person that names 
the largest number of animals intended to be represented. 
After the same fashion you may conduct a contest in the 
drawing of Bible scenes. 

For something more substantial, pass around a collec- 
tion of reproductions of great paintings on Scripture sub- 
jects, such as Da Vinci's " Last Supper. 7 ' Each will 
bear a number, but the title will be removed. Every one 
present will be asked to make a list of subjects and (as 
far as possible) of artists, as the pictures are passed 
around. Essays and talks on some of the great artists 
who have pictured Bible scenes, their works and their 
lives, will complete an enjoyable and profitable evening. 

The same idea may be applied to music. Arrange a 
contest in the recognition of well-known sacred composi- 
tions, such as " The Palms," " The Holy City," the " Hal- 
lelujah Chorus " from " The Messiah." The opening 
measure of each will be played; and as it is played, all 
will write the name of the piece. There will be essays 



SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIALS 227 

and talks concerning the great oratorios and their com- 
posers, with portions of each sung by a choir. The hymns 
will not be neglected, and there we enter upon a fasci- 
nating field. Songs will be sung by different classes, care- 
ful rehearsal having preceded the performance. The 
Sunday-school hymnals will be brought out in conclusion, 
and some of the unfamiliar songs therein will be sung by 
all. 

Another social may be built up, at least in part, on 
the idea of Bible numbers. Take well-known number 
games, and apply them to the Bible. For instance, you 
will distribute cards bearing numbers, perhaps from one 
up to four or five, — one card to a person. The leader 
will then call out : " The number of books in the Old 
Testament ! " The set of persons that first gets together 
and presents itself to the leader, their cards summing up 
thirty-nine, will be decorated with rosettes of tissue pa- 
per. The companies will then dissolve, to form new 
combinations, when new calls are issued, as, " The number 
of apostles/ 7 " The number of days between the resur- 
rection and ascension," " The number of Beatitudes," 
" The number of chapters in Genesis," " The number of 
the famous verse in the third chapter of John," " The 
number of the most famous Psalm," " The number of 
Jacob's children" (not sons, observe!). 

I have given only a hint of my thought regarding Sun- 
day-school socials, and the distinctive character that they 
may be made to assume. To form these plans and carry 
them out you will need a committee of quick wits and 
original ability, Bible-lovers, and lovers of the Sunday 
school. These special designs require time and thought 



228 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

and painstaking, but they bring rich rewards. If the 
socials are conducted in the right spirit, they will stimu- 
late love for the Bible and interest in the school, and, 
best of all, they will arouse new love for our Lord, who 
came to earth that His joy might be in the hearts of His 
people. 



XXXVI 

EASY SUNDAY-SCHOOL CONCERTS 

Superintendents, at any rate, will be attracted by my 
title. How they groan over the expected concert ! How 
often the time for one comes round! How perplexing 
to plan for one, and how arduous the execution ! So diffi- 
cult has the task become that in many schools the concert 
has been abandoned in disgust. 

But we cannot afford to do this, if the Sunday-school 
concert is helpful to the school ; and I think it may always 
be made very helpful. I think it may always be so con- 
ducted as to attract new scholars, hold the old scholars 
more firmly, exhibit the Bible knowledge of the school, 
and teach new Bible facts and truths. Those are the four 
legitimate purposes of the Sunday-school concert, and I 
think they may always be attained, and attained without 
undue toil. 

How often should a concert be given ? "No oftener than 
it can be given well, though only once a year. In any 
case, quarterly is often enough. It should never be al- 
lowed to become an old story, a drag, or a burden. 

But, however often or seldom a concert is given, a con- 
cert committee should be at work all the time, a standing 
committee of the school. As soon as one concert is over 
they should begin to prepare and plan the next one, and 
they should bring it out when they are ready. All the 

229 



230 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

time this committee should be skirmishing for concert 
ideas, collecting bright recitations, examining publica- 
tions, drilling the children, stimulating teachers and par- 
ents in preparation. It is not right to throw this task 
on the already over-burdened superintendent. Moreover, 
it is not business-like, for specialization brings the best 
results, and no one, however capable, is likely to do a 
task so well with the fragments of his time as a committee 
will do it when they focus upon it their united and un- 
distracted resources. 

That such a committee would greatly relieve him, every 
superintendent will instantly agree. By division of labor 
among themselves, the committee in its turn will make 
the work easy. Moreover, they will divide the task among 
the teachers, so that it will not press heavily on any one. 
Whatever plan for the concert is adopted, it should be 
portioned out among the classes, so that each class is re- 
sponsible for the execution of part of it, and each teacher 
is responsible for his class. 

One important factor of a successful concert is pleasur- 
able anticipation. One important duty of the concert 
committee, therefore, is to advertise the concert as widely 
and attractively as possible. To this end, distinguish it 
from other concerts by giving it a name. It may be a 
Temperance Concert (better, a " Cold Water Concert"), 
or a Missionary Concert (the " Great Commission Con- 
cert"), an Elijah Concert, a David Concert. 

Those names will indicate my liking for a variety of 
motives in our concerts. Why is it that, in monotonous 
round year after year, we must have a Christmas concert, 
and an Easter concert, and a Thanksgiving or Harvest 



EASY SUNDAY-SCHOOL CONCERTS 231 

concert ? The symbols and thoughts connected with those 
great days are becoming stale from constant repetition. 
Concerts based ceaselessly on these three anniversaries are 
sure to be hackneyed. 

Let us try a bold branching out. Let us found one 
concert on the heroes and heroines of the Bible. Let us 
devote another to Robert Raikes and the history of the 
Sunday school. Let us take our church for another 
theme, and study its history and work. Flowers may 
furnish the thoughts for another concert, or animals and 
humane treatment of them, or generous giving, or patri- 
otism. 

But you cannot find printed programmes for these 
themes ; while programmes for Christmas concerts, for 
instance, grow on every tree ? True ; but how monotonous 
and uninteresting most of them are, with their endless 
responsive readings, songs, and recitations ! Try home- 
made programmes, while you are waiting for the publish- 
ers to expand their catalogues. You may not yourself 
be able to strike out a new method, but you can at least 
take a fresh theme. 

Nor is it necessary, in order to give the concert an air 
of novelty, that everything in it move along new lines. 
One striking exercise that is original and bright will be 
enough to make any concert shine. If the concert com- 
mittee gets two such ideas in any quarter, let it prudently 
lay one of them away in cold storage! 

For example, one concert may be based entirely on 
pictures related to the quarter's lessons, — stereopticon 
pictures, if you are fortunate or enterprising enough to 
have a stereopticon j perhaps the large colored pictures 



232 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

that may now be obtained for each lesson; perhaps draw- 
ings by a local artist. As each picture is shown, one 
class, assigned to that picture, will in some way tell its 
story. How this is to be done will be left to the ingenuity 
and skill of each class, and no one outside the class is to 
know, until the concert, just what that class is to do. 

At another time, the most striking feature of the con- 
cert may be a story, original or selected, bearing upon 
some prominent lesson of the quarter. This will be read 
by an accomplished elocutionist; better, it will be told, 
and not read. 

A very effective concert may be constructed entirely 
of Bible passages committed to memory and presented in 
different ways by the classes. These passages will all 
have some relation to the current lessons. Some of them 
will be recited by the class in concert. Appropriate ges- 
tures may be introduced, and many passages, such as the 
parables, may thus be given most impressively. The 
passages that introduce conversation may be arranged as 
brisk dialogues, and so be presented. Appropriate psalms 
may be chanted. Two classes may combine to give some 
lyric passages antiphonally, placing themselves in oppo- 
site corners of the room. Consecrated ingenuity will find 
endless ways of making these great Scriptures bear elo- 
quent witness of themselves. 

Thus the Bible will furnish countless themes for con- 
certs. A concert on the miracles, on the parables, on the 
Beatitudes, on the Ten Commandments, on the Psalms, 
the Proverbs, the prophets, — what opportunities for varied 
and instructive exercises do these titles suggest ! If your 
lessons are on the life of Christ, you can always construct 



EASY SUNDAY-SCHOOL CONCERTS 233 

an attractive concert simply by illustrations of that life, 
taking the events in chronological order. A song (solo, 
duet or quartette) will make sweet commentary on one 
scene, the recitation of a great poem will show forth an- 
other event, a picture may be exhibited and described, 
or an object from the Holy Land, to illustrate a third 
portion of the story. There is room, and inspiration, for 
all kinds of pleasant treatment. 

A question concert at the end of a quarter will afford 
a. practical variation. The preliminary drill must be 
long and thorough. Throughout the quarter, for each 
lesson the superintendent will furnish the teachers with a 
set of questions, perhaps fifteen or twenty to a lesson. 
Every question should admit of a brief answer that the 
school can repeat in concert. The teachers will go over 
these questions with their scholars, not forgetting the re- 
views, and the superintendent will drill the entire school 
upon them at the close of the lesson hour. The concert 
will consist of the brisk asking and answering of these 
questions, with an occasional appropriate solo or recita- 
tion to avoid monotony, and a brief talk on the quarter's 
Golden Text. 

An interesting review concert may be arranged, based 
on a large home-made map. Only the outline of the 
country will be placed on the map. The lessons of the 
quarter will be taken up in turn, and each will be reviewed 
by a different class. One scholar of the class will pin 
to the map a large black circle to represent the place 
which was the scene of the lesson, telling something about 
the place. Another scholar will carry on to the pin and 
twist around it a red cord which indicates a journey from 



234 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

the location of the preceding lesson to this, or simply the 
progress of events; and as he does this, the scholar will 
briefly relate the " intervening events " between the two 
lessons. A third scholar will give the main facts of the 
lesson. A fourth scholar will tell in a sentence what they 
teach. Thus each lesson will be reviewed; and if the ex- 
ercise is kept moving briskly, it will fill the hour with 
pleasure and profit. 

Class drills will give you another enjoyable concert. 
Each class will supply a single drill, limited in length ac- 
cording to the number of classes. One set of children 
will exhibit their quickness in finding and reading texts 
called from all parts of the Bible. Another class will re- 
cite Bible passages in concert; another antiphonally. 
Still other classes will give question drills, the questions 
of one class relating to Bible geography, illustrated by a 
map; while the questions of other classes will have to do 
with Bible animals, miracles, kings, soldiers, mothers, pre- 
cious stones, flowers, and so on. Of course these drills 
must be carefully prepared and well practised. 

Class exhibits are a pleasant adjunct of a concert. Dis- 
play around the room whatever will illustrate the work 
the school has been doing. Now it will be lives of Christ 
which the scholars have written, or maps they have drawn, 
or historical charts or other diagrams which they have 
made, or models which they have constructed. Such an 
exhibit, announced long in advance, will stimulate the 
school to better work, and will at the same time furnish a 
fine recommendation of the school to outsiders. 

It is not absolutely necessary to have a talk to the chil- 
dren in order to have a successful Sunday-school concert; 



EASY SUNDAY-SCHOOL CONCERTS 235 

this will be news to some superintendents. Better have 
none at all than have a poor one. Under no circum- 
stances should there be more than one, though I have been 
obliged emphatically to decline an invitation to be the 
third speaker at one of these long-suffering concerts. The 
talk should be illustrated, if possible — a blackboard talk 
or an object lesson. It should move rapidly, and it should 
be very clear and simple, with few points, but those scin- 
tillating. It is a beautiful art to talk to children — and 
by no means a common possession. One talk such as it 
should be will amply make the fortunes of a Sunday-school 
concert. 

The older scholars and the adults should not be neg- 
lected in the concert, as is so often the case. Dignify it al- 
ways by introducing something from the oldest classes. 
This contribution should never be a sermon addressed to 
the younger children, but a contribution to the general 
theme of the concert; and this contribution will be espe- 
cially valuable when made by young people at the age when 
they often drop out of the school. 

The music is surely an important feature of a Sunday- 
school " concert," and sometimes superintendents forget 
the meaning of that word. There should be much sing- 
ing, and it should be varied, and as good as possible. 
Solos, duets, quartettes, choruses, violins and perhaps a 
school orchestra, maybe a school choir — all these may be 
introduced. Do not use the church choir; and, as far as 
you can, use the musical ability of your own scholars. 

The successful concert must not dawdle; there must 
be action, energy, swift progress throughout the hour. A 
printed programme will be an aid to this end, besides serv- 



236 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

ing as a good advertisement to distribute "beforehand. If 
yon cannot print the programme, or even work it off on 
a hand duplicator, you can at least print it on a blackboard 
or a large sheet of paper to hang before the audience. 
Begin on time and close on time. Close promptly, though 
half the programme remains to be given ; carry it over to 
the next concert. 

Pleasant distinction may be given a concert by appro- 
priate decorations for the schoolroom, and these decora- 
tions should be as different as possible from those for- 
merly used. Now you may collect all the pictures of 
Christ you can find; again, all the Madonnas; again, all 
the pictures of Old Testament heroes and heroines, or 
scenes illustrating Bible geography. Flags may furnish 
the decorations for a patriotic concert. Christmas cards 
may adorn the walls for a Christmas concert. At an- 
other time you may use all the objects from Palestine you 
can gather up. At another time, as already suggested, 
you may exhibit the maps and similar work of the scholars. 

In all this varied work, for and in the concert, let us 
not forget — and if we proceed along the lines I have in- 
dicated we are not likely to forget — the aims of the in- 
stitution, which I named at the outset. Every Sunday- 
school concert should seek to attract new scholars and hold 
the old scholars more firmly. It should exhibit in some 
degree the Bible knowledge of the school, while at the 
same time it teaches something new about the Bible. A 
concert that does these four things, though inadequately, 
is well worth while. 



XXXVII 

PULLIXG TOGETHER 

I have always been much impressed by the following 
fact : Take two vessels full of water ; connect them. Let 
the first have a surface area of one square inch and the 
second of one square yard — ■ or a square mile, for that 
matter. Put a plunger in the small vessel and press down 
on the water with the weight of a pound; instantly one 
pound's pressure will be exerted on every inch of the sur- 
face of the larger vessel. 

This fact illustrates the value of esprit de corps in a 
Sunday school. When that fine quality is present, when 
the school " pulls together/' then the force of each is com- 
municated to all, and the force of all upholds each. The 
school has become an effective unit. 

When the school lacks this esprit de corps, how it drags ! 
It may boast of notable individual features; here and 
there a teacher is arousing enthusiasm, here and there an 
officer may do admirable work. But they are all at cross 
purposes. Methods do not fit together, purposes do not 
pull together, there is no cooperation. Therefore, as a 
school, there is no operation. 

Enthusiasm for individual teachers will never take the 
place of enthusiasm for the school. When those teachers 
leave, their scholars leave. Such a school has no self- 
perpetuating power. It is not an organism, it is a con- 

237 



238 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

geries. It is not a block of sandstone, it is a heap of sand 
grains. 

School spirit is analogous to the spirit that animates 
a living body. If an arm is on this table, a leg on that, 
the heart in a dish here and the brain in a bottle yonder, 
we know what has happened: the body is dead, and has 
got into the medical college! Life is conditioned npon 
juxtaposition of parts, the same life-blood flowing through 
all, the same nervous system directing all. Life is condi- 
tioned upon " pulling together." 

If this is true — and it is all absolutely true — then 
this pulling together is one of the essentials of a live Sun- 
day school. Indeed, it is the first essential. It may cost 
time and pains to attain it; but attain it we must, at 
whatever cost, or we are not sure of having a Sunday 
school at all very long. Suggestions of some of the prac- 
tical ways of attaining it will occupy the remainder of this 
chapter. 

In the first place, a teachers' meeting unifies a school, 
makes it pull together. This powerful unifying agency is 
usually despaired of because of the erroneous impression 
that a teachers' meeting requires a teacher. It does not; 
only teachers that meet. If you meet to study the Sun- 
day-school lesson and methods of teaching it, you will need 
an executive head to assign topics, as, that a certain teacher 
will discuss the intervening events, another the points of 
time, others the geographical points, matters of word in- 
terpretation, doctrinal points, questions of custom, meth- 
ods of teaching, illustrations and applications, while the 
most skillful of all will close the evening with a quiz. 
This Teacher's Cooperative Club, as it might be called, 



PULLING TOGETHER 239 

is easily organized and most profitable in its results. And 
it will cause the teachers to pull together. 

In the second place, regular and thorough-going execu- 
tive-committee meetings unify a school. Some superin- 
tendents like to be the whole set of officers. Before long 
such a superintendent has a chance to be the whole school 
also. In the executive-committee meeting the wiser su- 
perintendent has a chance to arouse perhaps ten persons 
to harmonious and vigorous action for the school, and 
these are the persons whom the school has placed over its 
affairs — the pastor, the assistant superintendents, secre- 
tary, treasurer, librarian, chorister, and heads of the pri- 
mary department and home department; perhaps others. 
If the chief interests of the school are planned for in such 
a cabinet meeting, the school can hardly fail to pull to- 
gether more effectively. 

Any planning for the school on the part of companies 
interested in it helps to unify it. For instance, the 
church prayer meeting. Once a year is not too often to 
devote a church prayer meeting to the Sunday school. Let 
the superintendent be the leader, and let live topics be dis- 
cussed, with much prayer. 

A strong personality unifies the school. Get for your 
superintendent, if possible, the brainiest, liveliest, lova- 
blest man in the church. Keep him in the position for 
life, if you can, just as you would keep a noble pastor for 
life. Do you know how a concretion is formed in a rock ? 
Simply by the presence of a nucleus of hard substance 
upon which like material may be deposited, year after 
year, by the percolating waters. A long-tenure superin- 
tendent of the right sort is such a nucleus, and around 



240 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

him forms, layer by layer, a Sunday school that is an 
entity. 

A graded system is a powerful unifier of a school. It 
implies the orderly progress of the scholars from class to 
class, from department to department. That implies that 
both teachers and scholars are bound together in a har- 
monious, well-designed effort. All parts of the school 
must pull together, if the scholar is to be carried from 
point to point of Biblical knowledge in a swift and steady 
advance. 

A school enterprise unifies the school. Do something 
for the church: get new cushions for the pews, or new 
hymnals; or set the scholars to cleaning the churchyard 
and caring for flower-beds there. Do something for mis- 
sions : let the school, for instance, undertake to educate 
an India famine orphan. Do something for the Sunday 
school itself: get it a new set of maps, or a stereopticon. 
Do something for the village: organize a lecture and en- 
tertainment course and set the scholars to selling tickets. 
In the course of such a joint undertaking the school will 
certainly learn to pull together. 

Kecognition of membership in the school unifies it. A 
school button or badge to be worn on all important occa- 
sions, a list of the scholars' names kept posted somewhere 
and perhaps printed once a year in a neat pamphlet, a 
little gift on Christmas to each member of the school — 
such recognition costs little, and pays for itself many 
times over in the perception of a common tie, in the will- 
ingness of the school to pull together. 

Advertising unifies the school. " Get up its name," 
as the billboard men say. Put it often in the papers. 



PULLING TOGETHER 241 

Talk about it in the pulpit. Announce its new features 
on placards posted about town. Send printed invitations 
through the mail. Distribute in the homes wall-calen- 
dars upon which the name of the Sunday school is con- 
spicuous. Keep the school in the public eye. Make it an 
institution. Soon you will find folks proud to belong to 
it, and this common pride in it will cause them to pull to- 
gether. 

A general review of the school unifies it, as a regiment 
is unified by a dress parade or an army by a series of 
maneuvers. This is one of the chief values of the quar- 
terly concert. All parts of the school should be repre- 
sented in the concert, all departments, all ages, all classes. 
And as the school thus passes in review, a school-conscious- 
ness will be formed, a sense of school-personality. 

Similarly, concert exercises in the weekly sessions unify 
a school. These concert exercises may well be far more 
numerous and far more varied than is usual. Singing, 
under a good leader; long Bible passages committed to 
memory and briskly recited in unison ; the finding of refer- 
ences by all; the reciting of a catechism in concert — 
some such exercises should be a part of every school ses- 
sion, and this union of minds and voices will train the 
school to unity of feeling and action. 

A good time unifies — any jollity which the school en- 
joys together. The teachers and older scholars attend a 
Sunday-school convention in a body. The school holds a 
lawn social. There is a school walking trip to some scene 
of special interest, or a moonlight ride or a steamboat ex- 
cursion. The school treats itself to an exhibition of 
moving pictures. It visits some museum under expert 



242 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

guidance. It holds an annual athletic field day. It goes 
on a picnic. Laughing together, playing together, enjoy- 
ing together, will cause them to work together, to pull 
together. 

Competition with other schools unifies a school, just as 
an army is firmly knit together, if ever, in the presence of 
the enemy. These competitions may be arranged along 
various lines — athletic contests, oratorical contests, con- 
tests in answering questions about the Bible carried on like 
a spelling-match, contests in reciting Bible verses, con- 
tests in the writing of essays on Scriptural themes. All 
of these, with wise judges and appealing rewards, will do 
much to solidify the participating schools, and some of 
them may be made to do much toward increasing the 
knowledge of the Bible. 

Praise unifies. It is like the sunshine, fusing hearts 
into one enthusiasm. The pastor and the superintendent 
can best praise the school publicly — the attendance, the 
deportment, the singing, the collection, any feature of the 
school life. If all the school has a part of the praise, all 
the school will be sure to strive more earnestly toward the 
excellence that has been commended. Any team will pull 
together well if full measures of oats are at the end of 
the pull. 

Motion unifies. A regiment on the march to the music 
of a gallant band will move as a single man. Keep the 
school in brisk motion, if you would have it pull together. 
Set goals courageously before it, and give the order, " For- 
ward, march ! " Let the band play, let the colors fly, be 
enthusiastic, wave your arms and shout! 

Persistence unifies. It is like the steady pressure of 



PULLING TOGETHER 243 

superimposed strata that consolidates broken coral scraps 
into marble, and loose sand into sandstone. Form a pur- 
pose, and adhere to it. Don't be scrappy in your plans, 
or you will have an incoherent school. Fix on your goal, 
and then press toward that mark. The school will pull 
together along the road of your steady determination. 

Finally, and by far the most important of all these con- 
siderations, the Holy Spirit unifies. It is He, the Saint 
Esprit, that most effectively promotes esprit de corps. 
As He enters all hearts, they are bound together by a new 
and living organism. It is He in whom the whole body, 
the school, fitly bound together, is compacted and whole. 
As He draws us to the cross, we are drawn closer to one 
another, we clasp hands in a fresh and vital brotherhood, 
service is glorified and the Bible exalted, and the splendid, 
pulsing love of Christ comes to answer in the Sunday 
school that prayer of Christ, " that they all may be one." 



XXXVIII 

A FRESH START 

The observance of Kally Sunday in the Sunday school 
is grounded upon well-known laws of body and mind. 
Human organisms are so constituted that they cannot per- 
petually be at their best. Physical powers relax and the 
mind flags. It is impossible to maintain indefinitely at 
the highest pitch any thought or feeling or action. Even 
loyalty, and even loyalty to the noblest things, such as the 
Bible and the Bible school, has its ebb and flow. Even 
Elijah, even John the Baptist, even Peter, perhaps the 
three most zealous men of all the Bible, went far down in 
the valley of spiritual depression, and required their rally 
days. It is not at all strange that the immature scholars in 
our Sunday schools need such a day. 

The world is full of analogies. It is only in heaven 
that the trees bear their fruit every month. In this lower 
sphere the productive autumn is followed by the rest of 
winter and the exuberant Rally Day of spring. JSTot even 
so stolid a substance as steel can escape the law, but every 
razor must have its regular holiday, or its edge will not 
retain its sharpness. The universe is like a vast violin, 
whose strings cannot be perpetually stretched at concert 
pitch, but must be let down while the instrument is not in 
use or they will grow flabby and unmusical. 

A Sunday school may have been running all summer, 

244 



A FRESH START 245 

and still need a Kally Day, perhaps need it all the more. 
During the hot weather, energies have been relaxed, at- 
tendance has fallen off, and the contagion of playtime has 
seized npon the spirit of the school. Summer, in even the 
most active and best maintained Sunday schools, is a sort 
of fallow season, after which a Rally Day is required to 
break up the ground, for the sowing of good seed. If 
this is not done, and done vigorously with sharp plow and 
harrow, it will be seen that many a bad seed has found 
lodgment. 

Kally Day is well named. The name is soldierly. It 
suggests a great Leader, and a great cause. It suggests 
a standard up to which we are to come. It suggests com- 
radeship in action. It suggests new vigor in work. The 
name is spirited; it has life in it. 

If Rally Day is rightly managed, it will be like the 
brisk setting forward of troops. They will start off 
smartly, and all together. The band will be playing and 
the flags will be flying. Elbows will touch and heads will 
be held high. If soldiers advanced one at a time, there 
would be no charges and no battles. 

It's the first step that counts. Well begun is half done. 
A good beginning makes a good ending. The proverbs of 
all nations recognize the value of a vigorous start, of a 
rally to new tasks. 

What is more pleasing to the fancy than a clean page on 
which to write, fresh garments to put on, a new house 
ready for occupancy? New ways — if I may venture a 
bull — are better than the old, even though they are no 
better, just because they are new. In the realm of the 
imagination, where children and properly built elders live, 



246 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

new bottles renew the wine and new patches re-create the 
garment. Give a girl a fresh ribbon and all the world is 
freshened for her. Rally Sunday is to deck our schools 
with fresh ribbons. 

Our Sunday-school rally has much in common with a 
political rally. Why do the great parties appoint their 
committees, get their speakers, plaster the bill-boards with 
flaming posters, load the mails with circulars, " hire a 
hall," decorate it lavishly, get out the brass bands and the 
torches ? Not so much to make votes, because votes are 
seldom made in that way, but rather to advertise the 
party, and to stimulate the party workers. 

In like fashion our Sunday-school rally must be so con- 
trived as to fire the imagination of teachers and scholars, 
grip their wills, kindle their zeal, and focus all their en- 
ergies upon the task before them. It is the one great 
chance of the church year. If it fails, the failure will ex- 
tend over months. If it succeeds, the success will last 
for many weeks to come. 

It is our great chance to advertise the school. The 
special features that will be planned for Rally Day, the 
speeches, the recitations, the songs, the dialogues, the ob- 
ject talks, the blackboard talks, will be fully set forth in 
notices in the town paper and from the pulpit and on 
postal cards and circulars and even on posters for the 
bulletin-boards and the village trees. Every school may 
well have an advertising committee the whole year around, 
and Rally Day will furnish its grand opportunity. 

It is our great chance to promote the attendance of the 
school. Promotions will be made. The nucleus of sev- 
eral new classes will be formed, which must be filled up in 



A FRESH START 247 

each case. This is a good time for a canvass of the whole 
town for new scholars, rewards being offered for every 
new scholar brought in on Eally Day. 

It is our great chance to get out of ruts. Let the su- 
perintendent call a meeting of all the officers and teachers, 
and make a new start with them as well as with the 
scholars. Determine to do things differently, in many 
important particulars. If the Scripture reading has been 
by alternating verses, superintendent and the school, have 
the boys read alternately with the girls, or let one class 
read alternately with another class, or let some scholar 
commit the passage to memory and recite it. If it has 
always been the superintendent that has led in prayer, have 
several teachers do it, or one of the older scholars now 
and then. 

Determine upon some large new plan for the school, and 
at least announce it, if you cannot inaugurate it, upon 
Eally Day. You may decide to purchase a school stereop- 
ticon, or to get new books for the library, or to form a 
school choir or a school orchestra, or to set up screens 
around the classes, or to obtain a set of wall maps, or to 
establish a reference library for the teachers and older 
scholars, or to build a room for the adult class, or to form 
a Sunday-school kindergarten, or to adopt the plan of or- 
ganized classes. Whatever it is, you will make much of 
the new undertaking, using it fully to add to the Eally 
Day enthusiasm. 

And finally, in all your Eally Day planning, be sure 
that the right standard is raised around which to rally. 
That standard is the banner of the cross. Let loyalty to 
Jesus Christ be the rallying cry, and not a bigger class or a 



248 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

bigger school or to beat other scholars and other schools. 
If with this aim we rally our forces, the peerless Captain 
will take command, and will lead them to a year of vic- 
tory. 



XXXIX 

THE COOPERATIVE TEACHERS' MEETING 

Probably all Sunday-school workers will admit that the 
greatest need of our schools, a need least often met, is the 
need of teachers' meetings. Private study of the lesson 
is not enough for our teachers. They need instruction 
in the methods of teaching. They need the inspiration of 
fellowship and the helpfulness of consultation. They 
need to hear one another's prayers. They need to learn 
one another's experiences. Each needs, no matter how 
wise he is, the wisdom of all the others brought to bear 
on the lesson. The school business needs such a meeting 
of its principal workers. The school needs the esprit de 
corps that such a gathering can best bring about. Nothing 
is a greater help to a school than a teachers' meeting, and 
yet no agency of progress is so commonly lacking. Why 
is this ? 

Because of the difficulty of finding leaders, and because 
of the tradition of one-man responsibility for the teachers' 
meeting. The teachers are already overburdened, and in 
few cases can one be found willing, or, in his judgment, 
able to carry on this meeting of teachers, doing practically 
all the work. It means a lecture course, lasting fifty-two 
weeks in every year. 

Now if your school has found such a heaven-born leader, 

a man who has the time and the consecration and the 

249 



250 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

brains for this hard but delightful task, thank God and 
elect him to the post in perpetuity. But if, as is likely, 
no such man or woman is in sight, then shed no tears, but 
establish forthwith a cooperative teachers' meeting. A 
teachers' meeting of the sort I shall describe is possible 
everywhere and under all circumstances. It is most suc- 
cessful with large numbers, as they give an increase of 
aggregate wisdom and the inspiration of size; the condi- 
tions are ideal when neighboring schools unite in the en- 
terprise; but if only two or three teachers can come to- 
gether for the meeting according to this plan, that will be 
ever so much better than solitary study. 

The motto of the cooperative teachers' meeting may 
well be, " Everybody is wiser than anybody." Every- 
thing is to be done in cooperation. Iso one is to do more 
than his share, and each is to do his share. Some definite 
part of the work is to be assigned to each, and he will be 
pledged to do it — or try to ! 

Elect a manager of the organization, who will be a 
good executive. Elect a new one every month, till you 
have given all a chance to show what is in them ; then the 
terms of service should be longer, but never long enough 
to be burdensome, or cause it to degenerate into a one-man 
affair. The manager's sole duty is to plan work for others 
and get them to do it. He is to preside at the meetings, 
and say as little as possible ! 

The work of the teachers' meetings is to be thoroughly 
and even minutely divided up, giving each a part. It will 
be helpful to assign names to these officers, somewhat as 
follows : 

A reviewer, who will not only question the teachers on 



THE COOPERATIVE TEACHERS' MEETING 251 

the last lesson, but, what is more important, will illustrate 
ways of going over the last lesson in the classes on the 
coming Sunday. 

A surveyor, who will present a general outline of the 
new lesson in a few sentences. 

A chronologist, who will bring out the time of the lesson 
and illustrate it in every way he can, as by a chart, by 
ribbons marked off, by a list of events going on at the same 
time in other lands than Palestine. 

A geographer, who will make the scene of the lesson 
as vivid as possible, using maps and books, engraved pic- 
tures and photographs, and showing how to use these most 
effectively in the class. 

An antiquarian, who will discuss the strange customs 
that may be brought up by the lesson, illustrating them 
from books of travel or the accounts of such living travelers 
as may be accessible. 

A historian, who will put the lesson in its proper set- 
ting, especially bringing out clearly the events intervening 
between the last lesson and the new one. 

A philologist, whose duty it will be to explain all words 
and phrases in the text that call for explanation. 

An exegete, who will unfold the meaning of the passage, 
bring to bear the best thoughts of the best commentators. 

A gunner, who will suggest the practical applications to 
the lives of the scholars. 

A librarian, to introduce literary references, such as 
poems based upon the Bible passage, and mentions of it in 
great books. He may also have charge of a reference 
library helpful in the lessons. 

An artist, to describe the paintings and sculptures that 



252 SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

have the passage for a subject, showing pictures if they 
can be obtained. 

A story-teller , to give anecdotes and other illustrations 
that will be useful in the class. 

A reporter, to scan the newspapers for current events 
illustrating the lesson. 

A hand-worker, to suggest things the children can be 
set to doing to illustrate the lesson, such as Bible-mark- 
ing, map-drawing, modeling, picture-coloring. 

A questioner, to conduct a " quiz " at the end of the 
hour, and especially to suggest to the teachers some 
thought-arousing questions for their classes. 

A pedagogue, to propose novel methods of teaching that 
are applicable to the lesson under discussion. 

Of course I do not mean that all sixteen of these officers 
must be appointed in order to make a success of this plan, 
or that all must report at every meeting; some lessons 
give no opportunity for some of them. I am only illus- 
trating the possible scope of the work. You may want to 
drop some of these and add others. The essential thing is 
to divide up the work, and do it thoroughly. 

These officers may be appointed by the manager, or the 
teachers may draw lots for the places. Three months is 
long enough to continue any arrangement, and then should 
come a general change. If you have few teachers, let 
each hold several offices. 

There should be a regular programme. Begin with a 
song, appropriate to the lesson (and some teacher assigned 
to point it out). Then a prayer, by one of the teachers. 
Then the Scripture passage will be read in some novel 
way that may be useful in teaching the lesson, The con- 



THE COOPERATIVE TEACHERS' MEETING 253 

versation portions will be read as dialogues. The speeches 
will be read as continuous addresses. Different versions 
will be used. Here is a chance for another officer, the 
Bible-reader. Then will follow the reports of the various 
officers, perhaps in the order in which I have named them. 
It will be the business of the manager to hold each speaker 
down to a definite small portion of time assigned him, 
and keep the meeting running briskly. The teachers are 
bright enough not to need full discussions of everything; 
hints are sufficient for them, in most cases. Close with a 
few minutes devoted to the general business of the school, 
conducted by the superintendent, and with an earnest 
prayer for the work of the coming Sabbath. 

The advantage of this form of the teachers' meeting 
over the one-man meeting of tradition is that each is more 
loyal to it because of his own responsibility for it, the co- 
operation of the many gives it really more interest and 
value, and the plan is carried out with continually increas- 
ing ease. Try it, if you have no teachers' meetings, and 
you will find the cooperative teachers' meeting to be the 
life of the school. 



THE END 



Cfc g>tmba|>=il>d)ool Workers' 

l) \\\VTIYX) ^ n ^ nva ^ ua ^ e Assistant to Pastors, 
J** V U I i* %• ff Superintendents and Teachers 

rpHIS WORKERS' LIBRARY covers all the 

-*■ fields of Sunday-School activity, pointing out 
not only the problems encountered by the Superin- 
tendent, and solutions of the same, but also facing 
the broader and larger questions which confront the 
teacher in his relation to his class. 

By REV. A. F. SCHAUFFLER, D.D. 

WAYS OF WORKING; Or, Helpful Hints for Sunday 
School Officials and Teachers 

232 pp. Cloth, $1.00 
This is a volume of bright and practical ideas. Marion Lawrance 
says of it: " It is the best ' all-around' book for the Sunday School 
worker I know of." 

THE TEACHER., THE CHILD, AND THE BOOK ; Or, 
Practical Suggestions and Methods for Sunday School 
Workers 

296 pp. Cloth, $1.00 

The author's long service as a student of child nature and his experi- 
ence as a Sunday School editor lend a value to his writings which 
cannot be estimated. 

SPARKS FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT'S ANVIL 

A Practical Helper for Every Sunday School Worker 

274 pp. Cloth, $1.00 
The material is taken from the author's own experience, put into a 
practical and simple form with suggestions as to the adaptation of his 
principles. 

By AMOS R. WELLS 
SUNDAY SCHOOL PROBLEMS 

A Book of Practical Plans for Sunday School Teachers and Officers 

297 pp. Cloth, $1.00 

The author's sole purpose in presenting this volume is to aid teachers 
and officers in the most practical manner. It is simple and practical, 
just what every Sunday School teacher will appreciate. 

SUNDAY SCHOOL ESSENTIALS 

What Every Sunday School Teacher and Superintendent Needs the 
Most in Order to Win Success 

253 pp. _ Cloth, $1.00 
Many practical themes are discussed in a very practical way. The 
book meets the needs of the teacher who wants to know just how to 
grip the attention of his class and hold the interest. There are also 
chapters of especial value to superintendents. 



By REV. F. N. PELOUBET. DX>., Author of "SELECT NOTES" 

THE FRONT LINE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

MOVEMENT 
A Volume of Practical Aids and Suggestions for All Sunday School 
Workers 

240 pp. Cloth, $1.00 
This volume is the result of long years of observation, continual 
study and actual practice on the part of the author, for Dr. Peloubet 
has devoted his entire life to Sunday School work, and his famous 
annual volume, Select Notes, has been the constant companion of 
thousands of Sunday School workers the world over. 

By M. G. KENNEDY 
OUR BOYS AND GIRLS 

Hon) to Interest and Instruct Them in Bible Study 

128 pp. Cloth, 75 cents 
The book is the summing up of the life work of this wonderful 
Bible teacher of the little folks. 

By HENRY TURNER BAILEY, Mass. State Supervisor of Drawing 

THE BLACKBOARD IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Price, 75 cents, postpaid 
This book is replete with hints and suggestions to amateurs on the 
principles of drawing. Sample lessons are presented in detail, beau- 
tifully illustrated, showing the method of teaching by means of the 
blackboard, picture diagram, acrostic and outline. 

THE GREAT PAINTERS' GOSPEL 

Price, $2.00 
This beautiful volume is 8x1 1 inches in size and contains one hun- 
dred and seventy-four pictures selected by a Biblical expert and inter- 
prets to the mind, through the eye, the life of Our Lord, and one 
beholds new beauty and strength even in some of the most familiar 
descriptive passages and sayings of the Christ man. 

By FLORENCE H. DARNELL 

TRE BLACKBOARD CLASS FOR PRIMARY SUNDAY 
SCHOOL TEACHERS 

Price, 25 cents, postpaid 
The author of this little book has hit the happy medium between 
practice and theory, giving just enough of both to enable one to draw, 
freely and effectively, some of the common and most useful subjects 
of Sunday School ilustration, while the explanations of the theory 
are extremely clear. 

By HELEN BROWN HOYT 
A CHILD'S STORY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST 

Bound in cloth, with illuminated cover, and illustrated by one hun- 
dred and thirty-seven beautiful half tones. Price, $1.25. 

"A Child's Story of the Life of Christ" is, as the title indicates, a 
story of Christ's life from the annunciation to his ascension, adapted 
to a child's understanding and presented in interesting story form. 



FEB 2 1912 



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